If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder
by Benny2Cool2Die
Summary: Magneto gets a shot at being someone's dad again. Peter gets a chance at being someone's kid. And they both make a lot of mistakes in the process. Apocalypse SPOILERS.
1. Chapter 1

"You have a remarkable power, young lady", Erick didn't even tried to hide the admiration in his voice. "You have so much strength inside you, so much power. Think of the things that you could achieve if you set your mind. We should test the reach of your mental force, maybe us Cerebro as an amplifier to explore the possibilities that…"

 _"_ _Erick, that's enough!"_ Charles non vocal order interrupted Erick's train of thought. Even with all his years of experience at Charles' non verbal communication, Erick was still startled when the other mutant appeared on his mind. Charles knew that his old friend hated anything that resembled mind control, so he tried to avoid talking inside his brain as much as possible and only resorted to it when it was necessary. Or when he was too mad at Erick to mind his delicate feelings.

 _"_ _She's tired"_ Charles silently expressed, somehow managing to convey his annoyance without a single word being said.

Erick looked at the young teenager standing in front of him. For the first time he noticed her flushed cheeks, the sweat drops on her forehead and her agitated breathing. Erick felt a wave of guilt wash over him.

He often let his enthusiasm for other's mutants powers control him. Their habilities were amazing, the result of countless years of perfecting through evolution, a result of nature's design and luck. And sometimes Erick felt like he was the only one that saw mutations for what they were: gifts. Other mutants, specially the younger ones, seemed to be fixated on the negative aspects of their powers, something that Erick blamed n their ridiculous need to fit into a society that was set on despise them.

But he had let his enthusiasm blind him from the facts: it was hot outside and Jean was exhausted from working at the mansions rebuilt all day.

"Maybe another time", Erick admitted, feeling oddly sheepish.

"I'm okay, we can keep working, Mr. Lehnsherr" the gasping tone on Jean's voice revealed her fatigue but the fact that she tried to hide it and the determined expression on her face, made something inside Erick twist painfully. She was trying so hard to impress him.

"I insist on a break. We'll start again in the morning, when you have rested" Jean was about to object, but Erick made a motion with his hand to stop her. "You've done an excellent job, Jean. But even the mightiest need to rest from time to time."

Jean seemed doubtful, but finally she gave the older mutant a court nod.

"Thank you Mr. Lehnsherr" the girl said before turning around and jogging to the tree under which the rest of her friends were sitting.

 _"_ _That was a nice thing to say, Erick. She looks up to you, you know."_ Charles' voice was kind, even sweet. It made Erick grit his teeth.

 _"_ _Her talents are wasted building roofs. Besides it's too damn hot outside here, anyway"_ Erick bedgrudginly thought.

He could almost hear Charles' chuckle.

Erick was well aware of Jean's admiration towards him. The destructive nature of her power had alienated from some of her fellow mutants. But on the last days that she had been assisting with the rebuilt of the school, something similar to pride had begun taking over him. Even if at the end of the day she could barely stand and she suffered from terrible headaches due to the effort, she could barely hide her smile when the other students looked with awe as she helped put back the school piece by piece.

Erick was happy to have something to do with her crescent confidence in her powers, but he wished he could do more to show her what the real reach of her habilities could be. Not that Charles would ever approve of his methods to achieve so. He was too protective on the kids. And too wary of his old friend.

Erick had been honest with Jean. It was fucking hot outside. So he dragged himself to the "kitchen area" for refreshment. It was just an enormous tent with picnic tables that Charles had set up for the students that chose to stay on the school during the summer break instead of going back home. Most of them didn't had any homes to go back to. Others had homes so fucked up that a couple plastic tables and a tent even sounded appealing. Charles had also obtained access to a food truck that had air conditioning so obviously Raven volunteered to attend it, even if her idea of serving food was shoving it into people's faces and taking long naps while Hank dealt with the meals.

When Erick approached, he was surprised to notice Raven was awake and leaning out into the counter area of the truck. He was down right shocked when he noticed, in addition, the rare seen smile that graced her features. Hank was smiling too, but Erick tried not to be bothered by that.

Erick then directed his gaze to what was causing Raven and Hank to grin like they've gotten a puppy for Christmas. He found a small crowd of children, not one older than ten, surrounding a picnictable. Cautiously, he approached to take a better look.

The crowd of children would usually be dispersed by his intrusion. The younger members of the school feared his power and, much to Charles' disappointment, Erick hadn't been trying to hard to change their minds about him. But whatever was capturing the attention of the children was so powerful they didn't even looked at him as he approached.

In the center of the congregation he found two of the Xmen's brand new members. The Egyptian girl with white hair, Ororo, was smiling as she made graceful movements with her hands. Small snowflakes surrounded her and she directed then with expertise to a bowl that Peter, another new mutant, was holding. While balancing the bowl on top of his casted leg, Peter used his free hand to stir a strange looking mixture inside the bowl. He was using his enhanced speed to turn himself into a human Kitchen Aid.

Erick felt the need to groan at the obvious waste of energy and powers the activity was but then he herd the children around him giggle and whisper to each other in excitement.

He felt something tugging inside him. Something that felt both familiar and painful to relive.

Peter took his mind off the subject by suddenly announcing, "Ice cream is ready kiddos! Go get your cones!"

There was a chorus of excited screams and Erick found himself being tackled by midgets. He was taken back at the lack of respect but also amused at the competitive spirit of the troops. One kid even levitated towards the truck where Raven and Hank handed them empty ice cones. As soon as they got their cone, the kids were back at the picnic table.

It amused Erick to see that Peter made an effort to keep the order. He made his best attempt at a serious scowl and yelled, "If you don't make a line, you don't get ice cream. And Creed for fucks sake, stop making copies of yourself, you're only getting one!"

The kids were unfazed by the authority in Peter's voice, too excited to take his orders seriously. But they still made a line and gave small shy "thank you (s) " after getting their desserts. Faster than Erick had expected, the crowd had died down to a couple of kids.

"Now, give this to Hank and Raven and tell then thanks for the cones and for not loosing their patience with you, little punks", Peeter ordered as Ororo chuckled and served a cone to each of the remaining kids. After the kids ran away happily, Peter took out his hand out of the bowl and started licking his ice cream covered hands, ignoring Ororo's expressions of disgust.

Erick finally decided it was time to make an entrance.

"I'll take one, please", Erick tried very hard not to come across as intimidating but he realized his failure when Peter's relaxed demeanor changed immediately at the sound of his voice. The young silver haired speedster straightened up and his eyes widened.

"I don't have any connes, dude." Peter appeared to pale significantly. "Sorry I called you dude, man, it's an habit. And sorry I called you man, Mr. Magneto. Mr. Magnetodude"

Thankfully for Peter, Ororo intervened with her usual smoothness.

"I'll get you a cone, Mr. Lehnsherr. And a napkin to you Peter", Ororo offered a smile and took the bowl from Peter's hands.

Erick noticed the nervous energy flowing from the sitting mutant and he decided to take a page from Charles's manner book and make small talk, because that's what people did, right?

"How is your leg holding up?" Erick asked with a polite neutral tone.

Peter blinked a couple times before clearing his throat. "Well, you know this cast is a bitch and I'm sweating like crazy under it and it itched the whole time and I think I lost a fork inside it but please don't tell Hank because he'll get up in my ass talking about germs and permanent nerve damage and boring stuff"

Erick was amused by the young man's babbling. It was hard to keep up with his words but Erick was sure that was just another aspect of his mutation, so he made an effort to look past his annoyance and rescue the important bits of the conversation.

"Permanent damage?"

Something somber and dark crossed Peter's eyes. It was gone in an instant, but Erick managed to catch it.

"Yeah, it was a clean femur fracture man. My leg's nerve got like sliced through and Hank says I'm very lucky. He also has been very clear that if I try to cheat the recovery or jog with the cast I might never heal and then I wouldn't be able to run and that would suck, you know, cuz running is like awesome and it's kind of my thing, so I have to be good and sit and play with the babies even if I'm totally bored because there's no music or movies or anything to have fun.

Erick remembered the sound of Apocalypse breaking Peter's leg. It was engraved in his brain. He hadn't had the chance to let the young mutant know how much he admired what he had done that day. Taking apocalypse on his own had been reckless but also incredibly brave. And even if Peter kept babbling nonsense and had no sense of fashion beyond covering himself in silver, Erick respected him.

Peter was still nervous and he unadvertedly had placed his hands over his cast, too late to remember he was sill covered in ice cream.

"Shit! Not the jeans!" Peter cried out with such emotion, Erick was concerned for a second. "This is my last clean pair!"

Ororo was back, carrying a vanilla ice cone and a bunch of napkins. "Dude you are worse than the kids!" Ororo helped out Peter, who was desperately trying to clean up the sticky mess on the demin. She handed Erick his ice cone.

"Thank you", Erick quietly said. Suddenly he felt like an intruder. Social interaction was exhausting for him so he decided to quit while he was ahead. "I'll see what I can do about the movies"

Erick turned around and walked away, not noticing the happy smile on Peter's face.

 _"_ _I'm thinking about renting a projector and a screen for the kids"_ Erick thought, rather loudly, as he licked his ice cream.

 _"_ _Well, that's a nice idea, Erick. I'm sure we can come up with something",_ Charles' voice inside his head sounded horridly filled with pride _. "May I ask what's the reason for your inspired idea of entertainment?"_

 _"_ _No, you may fucking not",_ Erick mentally replied while smirking

" _I figure that much out_ " Charles voice is tinted with exasperation and that pleased Erick more than it should.

***.

Three days later, Charles is yelling at Erick because a lot of kids are having nightmares about being eaten by sharks and nobody wants to get inside the lake even if Charles has call a conference meeting in the tent for Hank to explain why the idea of a gigantic shark is ridiculous.

Meanwhile Peter sits to listen Hank's bring scientific facts while stealing glances at his father because the guy is awesome and Jaws is his new favorite film.

 **Hi guys! This is my first shot at writing Xmen's fics. I couldn't resist the temptation after reading so many great works on Peter/Erick's relationship. I hope you like it and don't mind the spelling mistakes (I'm not a native speaker) and that I rely heavily on the movies (I have never read the comics, though I keep finding out bits that made me think I'd like to know more about the canon story of these two characters) Anyway, this is the first chapter and a lot of them are going to be about bonding but it might be a larger action plot inside. I haven't made up my mind yet.**


	2. Chapter 2

Erick realized, with annoyance, that he was levitating on his bed. Again. Still half asleep, he decided to try to convey his ill humor towards a certain telepath that happened to live under the same quarters.

 _"_ _I know Erick"_ Charles voice replied inside Erick's skull, so clearly that it sounded as if he was standing right by his friend's bedside. _"Hank is taking me to see her"_

 _"_ _It's the third fucking time this week, Charles. We might as well strap the kids to the beds"_ Erick opened his eyes and tried his best to adjust to the lack of illumination.

 _"_ _It is getting better, I think. Apparently it has only affected this floor"_ Erick could picture Charles' puppy like happy grin as he said that.

" _As opposed to what? The whole Easter Coast?"_ Erick tried to ignore the strange empty feeling the anti gravity provoqued on his body. The only thing keeping him from puking was the fact that he wasn't sure if his vomit would float over his head.

 _"_ _Jean has suffered a traumatic experience, Erick"_ Charles sounded annoyed at his friend's lack of sensibility. _As per usual_ , Erick thought. _"She has improved on her control of her capabilities but we have a lot of work ahead of us. And she's not the only one that has nightmares"_

Erick tensed at that last statement. He didn't wanted Charles to see the horrible images that played every night on his dreams. The worse thing was that they were not creations of his imagination but actual memoires that mixed together in a horrible mix of violence, solitude and loss. He immediately got defensive and started trying to block the telepath's intrusion.

" _Relax, old friend. I wasn't referring to you. I promised not to prive on your thoughts and I would stay true to that oath. But half of the people living under this roof has some kind of emotional trauma_ " Charles' voice was tinted with exhaustion. Erick felt uncomfortable by the calmness on his friend's tone, so he recurred to his comfort zone.

 _"_ _Don't you have a non gravity situation to handle, Charles?"_ Erick was amused when Charles chuckled. He _mentally_ chuckled.

 _"_ _Already handled. It's called multitasking, Erick"_ Charles responded sarcastically. Almost immediately after that, Erick felt back on his bed.

 _"_ _By the way, could you help me out and check on Peter now that you're awake? I think he's having a nightmare too"_ Charles was obviously enjoying giving orders to his old pal and Erick gritted his tooth.

Erick had a million reasons why he shouldn't be checking on the boy. Half of them were related to "I'm not part of the teacher's staff" and half of them were more of the "I don't like talking to kids, people, animals or plants, Charles" type.

" _He is going to hurt his leg, Erick. And I have to check up on the rest of the students on this floor_ ", Charles tone became firm and Erick rolled his eyes. It was too late at night (or maybe early in the morning, his clock had landed somewhere in the room after Jean's stunt) to get into a fight with the telepath.

" _Just wake him up or something_ " Charles added vaguely

 _"_ _Fineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_ ", Erick replied, making a show of tossing away the sheets covering him.

 _"_ _Thanks_ _Sleeping Beauty_ " Charles snickered.

Peter was in pain. Every single bit of his body was burning in agony. His two legs were twisted at abnormal angles, both in opposing directions from his torso. Is arms lie limp by his side, both smashed to dead and reduced to dust.

Apocalypse rose proudly in front of the teenager, wearing a cruel sadistic grin on his face. He approached, slowly, to Peter's broken body. The blue giant placed one of his closed fist on top of Peter's chest and simply pushed down. Peter felt his ribs cracking, his lungs exploding under the pressure of the air inside him. And just as Apocalypse let out a sinister laugh, Peter screamed.

The net thing he knew, his fist was flying up and hitting something solid and warm.

"Jesus Christ!"

Instead of a blue mutant, Erick Lehnsherr stood in front of Peter. He was holding his nose with his hands and wore a mean frown on his face.

"What? Why are you here? Where?" Peter blurted out incoherently as he tried to stand up from the rec room couch where he had snoozed off.

"Try to elaborate a single full sentence, kid" Erick massaged his nose with a hand.

Slowly, Peter became more aware of his surroundings. He was a Xavier's School, not trapped in the middle of the after battle debris. Peter noticed his shirt was soaking in sweat and that there was salty taste on his lips, but Peter casually dismissed the fact that indicated that he had cried at some point of the night.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up dude", Peter was hyper aware of Erick's presence in the dark room. He was thankful the other mutant hadn't thought of turning on the light because he was pretty sure he was blushing a bit and that was lame as hell and also girly. Girls blushed. Not tough cool guys like himself.

"Jean woke me, you punched me" Erick clarified, finally deciding his nose had made it.

 _"_ _Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Did I just punched a terrorist in the face. Cool. I mean baaad. Don't hit dad, Pietro"_ , the teenager thought.

"I'm sorry!" Peter said alarmed. "Please don´t kill me. Or hit me. It wouldn't be fair, you know, since I'm a minor. Besides, I'm crippled. You can hit a crippled guy. Or perhaps you can. The Professor gets his ass quick often enough" Peter realized he was a bit more fidgety and jumpy than usual and the fact that he was in front of his unaware-parenthood-but-still-his-dad dude didn't help at all.

"He does get beat a lot", Erick agreed and Peter could sweat the older mutant was smirking. Or at least he was making his best effort to do so, which resulted on a twisted grimace. "So, you're awake now"

"Apparently" Peter realized that Erick seemed extremely uncomfortable. The teenager tried to reason that the other mutant was not a very sociable persona and that his awkwardness had nothing to do with his company, but it still resulted in a small, miniscule, tiny bit of emotional pain.

An eerie silence settled on the room. Peter wished the mansion to be haunted because in that way they could at least listen to the ghosts moan and whimper. Instead, they had to put up with the longue uncomfortable pause in the conversation.

"Do you want a beer?" Erick blurted out.

"What?" Peter had never thought Erick would say something like that. "Dude, I'm seventeen"

"Seriously? Charles is running a kindergarden" Erick shook his head in disappointment. And then switched right back to being all coy and weird towards the young speeder. "Well don't know what's the protocol here. Comforting people is not my area or expertise"

"Yeah, no kidding", Peter scoffed and regretted doing so immediately after he received a murderous glance from Erick. "Sorry. Please don't kill me"

"It would be extremely hard to wash off your blood from that leather couch" Erick said with a straight face and then, ignoring the shocked and a bit panicked expression on the teenagers face, he offered, "How about tea?"

"Tea is fine. Tea is super. I am a huge fan of tea. And infusions. And all tea related varieties" Peter staggered and Erick had to fight back a grin. He managed to keep his badass act until he turned around and head towards the kitchen, and then he let out a small smile.

"The case is gone", Erick noted after a few minutes of sitting in comfortable silence next to Peter, each of the men holding a steaming cup.

Peter had been playing with the tea bag on his cup. He didn't know how to act around Erick. They weren't close enough to be considered friends and he doubted Erick would let anyone other than Raven and the Professor call him a friend. But they weren't strangers either and after Erick came back from the kitchen he could have gone back to bed and instead he told Peter to sit up so that he could fit in the couch. That had to be a good sign.

"Yep. Hanks says I only have to wear this plastic stuff for a week more and then I'll be free. I won't be able to run yet, though but at least this shit will be gone. Seriously, my calf sweats like crazy", Peter couldn't help to smile as he thought about the end of his treatment. Even if Hank insisted it only took Peter half of the average human recovery time to heal, the teenager still insisted he had been suffering and sulking for ages. Centuries.

"I'm glad to hear that. Of all the young mutants here, I haven't seen anyone else that treasures his powers as much as you" Erick sounded sincere but Peter scoffed.

"Well that's easy because my powers are awesome. But I wouldn't be so happy if I had killer ray vision or if I was blue. Or any other color" Peter confessed.

Erick rolled his eyes, saving his objections to himself. Whatever the powers were, mutants should be proud of them. And sure, even if there were some downsides, they were still unique and marvelous creations of evolution that should be explored and respected not shamed and repressed.

"And it's not all cool, you know", Erick's attention peaked when Peter sais that.

"Really?" Erick asked with interest.

Peter dropped his bag of tea back on the cup. Erick wanted to tell him that he should place it on the plate before the infusion got too concentrated but he didn't want to miss what the teen had to say.

"Yah I mean, it's not only my body that goes fast, it is also my brain. So I can't focus on stuff like learning or reading. I watch like three movies at the time on different screens because otherwise I get super bored", Peter seemed to be venting for the first time about the issue and Erick listened closely to every detail. He had never imagined Peter's powers had any other purpose than , well, moving fast. "And I don't sleep much either. I nap for fifteen minutes and that's it. And the shittiest part is when I can't move. Like when I was thirteen, I had a fever that put me down for like a week and it messed up my sleeping schedule. It's like my brain is trying to compensate the energy left out by giving me this vivid super realistic dreams. Kind of an acid trip. But it can get a bit frightening, you know. Like having an overload of static on your mind"

"Is that why you had a nightmare?" Erick asked. He had done so out of pure scientific interest but he noticed Peter recoiling on his seat and regretted his intrusion. "I didn't meant to offend you"

"Nah is cool. I mean it wasn't cool because that weird blue guy crushed me to death…" Peter's eyes got empty for a second and Erick cursed himself for his lack of sensibility.

"The memories…", Erick said without thinking. He managed to snap the younger mutant out of his trance, so he carried on, "…some times they are worse than the things created by our minds"

"Do you dream about Nazis and that stuff?" Peter's voice was shy and almost whispery. Erick knew the teen must have been unsure of his right to ask such a personal question but it was late and Erick was not as defensive as he would be if he had rested some more.

"Among other things", Erick admitted.

"I am sorry", Peter said and Erick simply shook his head.

"It's fine, I don't mind your questions"

"No I mean, I'm sorry that happened to you", Peter blurted out. Erick was taken back by the teenager's reply. He stared at the silver haired mutant but Peter was purposely avoiding looking at him and he kept fidgeting with the tea bag

Erick would never let anyone say such things about his life. He could have erupted in ire against Peter, he could have thrown at the teen's face all the truly horrible things he had witnessed, the things he had done himself and tell him he knew nothing about his past, that he had no right in apologizing and that his good feelings wouldn't make a difference.

Instead, Erick felt something close to affection for the young boy. There was no ulterior motive to his comment. There was not a trace of a manipulative intention. Nothing like the pity and the guilt Charles used to address Erick's past. It had been such a naïve thing to say, such an innocent belief and spontaneous reaction that Erick felt truly touched for a moment.

"Thank you", Erick courtly say not really knowing what his feelings were at the moment. "You should probably go back to sleep now"

Peter seemed a bit disappointed but he didn't argued when Erick stood up. The older mutant thought about simply leaving the room but instead he turned around and said, "What do you usually do when you have bad dreams?"

"Oh!" Peter's face lightened up and Erick noticed his features were still juvenile and boyish. "If I listen to my Walkman as I sleep sometimes the music gets stuck on my brain and I get this lucid dreams where I'm at a Beatle's concert or The Who is playing in my bedroom. It's really cool"

"Where is it? Your Walkman?" Erick questioned, grinning a bit when Peter let out a dramatic moan.

"Catching dust on my mom's basement because I was an idiot who forgot to pack it" Peter grumpily admitted, trying his best to compose a serious frown.

"Shame" Erick simply said. "Good night Peter."

"Night", Peter gave Erick a small (a bit over enthusiastic) wave and the older mutant left the room.

The next morning Peter had to make an effort not to fell asleep on his cereal. H had dark circles under his eyes and he yawned tiredly as he tried to remember the purpose of spoons. Then Peter noticed Erick entering the cafeteria. He seemed well rested and elegant as always. He briefly noticed the teen looking at him and offered a court nod before taking a sit next to the Professor and Raven at the teacher's table.

Peter decided that for two people that claimed to hate each other, The Professor and Erick sat together too often.

"Ewgh, Peter! This is not tea, this is like a mutant super fueled caffeinated thing!" Ororo complained as she took a sip from Peter's cup. "You let the bag sink in for too long"

"It is just perfect like that" Peter replied with a beamingly smile before using his super speed to steal the piece of bacon that Kurt was about to bite.

Peter's right hand rested on the brand new Walkman that had appeared on his room in the morning. It had a classic music CD inside and a note written with impeccable handwrite.

 _"_ _Tell Mozart I said hi"_

 **Hi guys! Thank you so much to** **PokemonTrainer12** **,** **Mordollwen Castiel** **and** **occasionalreader** **for taking the time to encourage my writing. I was afraid this chapter might be too serious but I tried my best to ease into the relationship I want to create for this two characters. I've already thought about the next chapter and I think we're on the right way. Any constructive criticisim is highly encouraged and appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

**OKAY, I'm BACK! I'm so sorry to have let you hanging like that after the last update. Things in the real world got kind of messy** **L** **Anyway, I'll include some of that on a note at the end.**

 **As for the story, thank you so much for every review! Because I don't have much time now, I was struggling to find inspiration to keep going but your comments reminded me there's people actually reading this and looking forward to updates. Also, thanks for pointing out the correct spelling for Erik's name.**

 **Now, I know Peter is way younger than it should be. I honestly don't always keep up with the time gaps between the movies because they are not that obvious if you don't know much about American life and pop culture references (or even historical ones, like the presidents). I'm just going to have to ask you to ride along with the fact that Peter is on his late teens.**

 **And before reading this chapter: Something below might seem a bit OCC for Peter, but I promise to explain the reasoning behind that on the next update!**

 **Now, enjoy** **J**

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As experience proved, playing hide and seek with a bunch of kids that could set things on fire, camouflage against the wallpaper or mess with your memory to make you forget you saw them, was a terrible idea.

"We didn't technically loose them. I mean I'm pretty sure they are still in the building", Peter offered, as he attempted to console Hank, who was hyperventilating with panic.

"I don't think anyone will notice the difference, anyway" Raven agreed with a voice drenched in fatigue. She was splayed on the couch with her eyes closed but not yet asleep.

"Twelve kids are missing, Raven! Of course, somebody is going to notice!" Hank complained with a high-pitched voice.

Peter had no doubt the blue furry mutant was more concerned about disappointing the Professor than for the safety of the students. After all, Hank was supposed to be "the responsible" one, charged to keep things in order while the teachers suited up for a short recon mission in Washington.

"Name one of them and I will carry on the search immediately" Raven replied.

Hank opened and closed his mouth without any sound coming out. Peter thought he looked like an over grown fish, gasping for air. Did fish breath? Did they breath water? How does fish work? Peter's mind carried away.

"There's too many people in the school anyway", Jubilee complained from her corner of the room, where she was braiding Ororo's hair.

In that moment, Jean and Scott returned to the room. Jean was still throwing her head back as he clenched a clean rag against her face in an attempt to contain her nose bled. Scott was guiding her around the obstacles on her way.

"Okay, no more mind reading to find the kids. It causes potential aneurisms", Scott concluded.

Peter was about to suggest they simply disintegrated the house (there had to be at least one person in the school that could do that), when there was a loud clashing sound on the second floor. After a quick glance at his fellow mutant friends, Peter decided he was the man for the job.

"I got it!" Peter replied with excitement, before taking off. The cast was gone and even if waking up early to have physical therapy sessions with Hank was boring as hell, Peter was glad to be back in shape. He still did an awkward super fast limp instead of his usual pace, but he decided it would do for now.

In the blink of an eye, Peter reached the room from which the sound had come from. No luck, it was locked. Peter pressed his ear against the door and heard quiet sobbing. Concerned, he took a few steps back and prepared to kick the door down. He had never done anything similar before, but he had seen it happening often in movies and he was pretty confident that he could imitate the mechanics.

He ran towards the door, bracing for the impact… and came across with none. In fact, he had so much momentum that he flew across the floor, almost crashing with the window on the other side of the bedroom. He managed to break just in time and turned around, bewildered, to find a small girl holding the door open for him.

"I'm sorry!" the young girl offered, covering her face with her hands.

Peter scrambled through his brain to find the name of the girl. ¿Sonia? ¿Suri? ¿Tachikovorichev? Peter could only remember her powers had to do something with botanics. She was the one that kept making roses grow inside the classrooms.

"Hey, it's okay", Peter said softly as he approached the kid. "Are you injured?"

The girl shook her head. Peter kneeled at her side. He remembered comforting Lorna when she cried. Surely, the same principles applied to comforting all small girls.

"What's wrong?" Peter placed a hand on the girl's back and she rewarded him by finally looking up.

"I am sorry. I broke it", the girl said with a whispery voice. Peter was confused momentarily, but then the girl pointed a shaking finger towards the closet.

There were various items falling out of the wooden closet. It seemed that in her attempt of hiding, the girl had pulled down the rack that held the clothes, which had caused the whole array of items to collapse.

"It's okay, kiddo. It's just stuff", Peter offered the girl a small smile. "Why don't you go downstairs to let Hank know you're alive before he has a heart attack?"

The girl hesitated. Peter guessed the reason behind her concerns. "I'll clean up here. You go and tell Hank I found you"

"Okay. Thanks" the girl agreed and walked away.

Peter stood up and walked over to take a better look at the crime scene. In addition to the clothes, there were also a bunch of boxes that had tumbled down and opened. Peter carefully lifted one. He was about to place it on the bed when he noticed the small golden heart shaped locket on the wooden floor.

The silver haired teenager placed the box on the ground and picked out the locked. Without thinking, he pried it open.

And that's how Peter met her half sister for the first time.

"You didn't have to steal the jacket, Erik!" Charles was still lecturing his friend by the time they arrived at the mansion. Faking his lack of interest on the subject, Erik pretended to pick the dirt from under his nails as Kurt helped assemble the car ramp for the wheelchair.

"She called me a reformed terrorist, Charles" Erik complained, well aware of how childish he sounded. "I had to prove her wrong…at least on the 'reformed' bit"

"You don't even like the jacket" Charles rolled his eyes as he descended the vehicle.

Charles did have a point there. Erik loathed the black leather piece of clothing. It was cheap, it smelled old and was covered on metalling appliances, which was what allowed Erik to steal it on the first place. But the annoyed scowl on Charles face was worth it.

"I like it!" Kurt replied enthusiastically. He was excited because he didn't leave the mansion often, still afraid of what people could say about his blue skin. Charles had brought him along as a sort of butler/assistant _because "I don't trust you not to push me off a cliff, Erik"._ The usual man for the job, Hank, was charged to keep the mansion from being trashed on their absence.

"See, Charles, Kurt thinks I'm cool" Erik teased with a juvenile mocking tone, taking a great amount of satisfaction on Charles growl of frustration.

"Well, besides the small act of vandalism, I think the meeting went quite alright. I'm excited to see what Moira can do to improve our relationship with the government", Charles explained as they walked (the ones who could walk, in this case) back inside the property.

"Yeah, yeah, Moira is great", Erik could hide the ting of annoyance the doctor woke in him. She was a strong, independent, intelligent woman…and very attached to Charles. Erik tried not to dwell on the fact that the proximity between the two intellectuals bugged him.

The meeting, apart from Moira's presence had been…interesting. Dr. McTaggert had pointed out that late reports indicated suspicious activity around Coronel Stryker. He had been spotted on the vicinity of several incidents where young mutants have gone missing. So far, both factors seemed unconnected but the doctor wanted to make sure Charles was aware of the situation, given the fact that the mansion would seem like a shopping mall to anyone that wanted to collect mutants.

The two friends went inside the mansion in comfortable silence, until they reached the room to find a frantic group of students trying to pull a little kid from the ceiling, from which he seems to be attached by some unexplainable force.

"Get the broom Scott!" Jean cried as she climbed to the sofa.

Raven seemed to be about to throw her show at the kid in an attempt to make him come down.

"What the…?!" Charles loudly started, making his students became aware of his presence.

Erik chooses that opportune distraction to slip away unnoticed. He tried to get involved as little as possible with the disciplining of the students, because that would screw the whole purpose of seeming uninterested about the school life entirely.

He had been in a weird mood all week, ever since Charles asked him to accompany him to the meeting. He was still getting used to the fact that he and his lifetime pal were back on good terms. And know there was a whole routine and group of people that seemed to be attached to his life. People actually expected thing from him, like showing up at dinner or keeping from murdering someone out of spite. It was a new feeling and Erik wasn't sure if he liked it. He remembered his days after Shaw, looking for something worth fighting for. Then he recalled his days with Nina and Magda, slipping into the comfort of domestic bliss. Somehow the mansion seemed to be a combination of both ideals and fraternity and Erik thought if was nice, but also a bit asphyxiating. It all felt like a time bomb, waiting to explode.

He went up to his room, thinking about the possible combinations of clothes between his fancy items of clothing and the ragged leather jacket he stole from the punk that knocked his side against Charles' chair and muttered _"Watch it, crippled"_

The guy was lucky to walk away with his head still attached to his body.

Once he reached the hallway leading to his bedroom, Erik stopped dead on his tracks when he spotted the open door. He made a point to always lock up after himself, not for lack of trust in the people that lived in the mansion but more for an old habit.

Something was not right.

Cautiously, Erik approached the entrance. His old instincts slipped back in him easily, making him aware of his surroundings and locating every atom of metal that could be used like a weapon.

Erik wasn't sure about what he had expected to come across when he pushed the door to open it all the way, but it was definitely not Peter looking like a deer caught in the headlights, holding Nina's locket.

The older mutant took a quick look around and got a full idea of the situation. His clothes were lying on the ground and they had been stomped on and part of the rack where the hangs were had collapsed. Then there was the obvious surprise and fear mixed on the teenager's face.

Erik jumped to, what he reasoned, was a very obvious conclusion: he had been mugged by the world's clumsiest thief.

Erik felt a familiar sensation filling his body. It was a mix of ire and detachment. A cold and calculated anger. It was what made Magneto so deadly. Erik throw his shoulders back, growing to his full height.

"Funny place to meet, isn't it?" Erik snarled. He saw Peter gulping and smirked, "Give it back"

The teenager was mute, probably for the first time in his life. Strangely, he pulled the piece of jewelry closer to his body. The chained beast inside Erk rattled. He extended his hand slowly. "I'd hate to have to clean your blood off of it... now, give it back"

Peter was paler than usual when he slowly extended the necklace towards the older mutant. Erik felt a rush of power at the familiar feeling of being feared. Maybe he had been fooling himself all this time. Maybe he wasn't made t olive a peaceful life next to charles and his students. He was meant to rule, to be feared, to be admired… a force to be recon with.

There was a small sensation of relief when Erick felt the necklace in his hand. He knew it was silly to give so much emotional value to something material, but the very sensation of the weight of the locket on his hands seems to alleviate the pressure on his chest a little bit. He played with the tiny golden heart in his hands as he contemplated how to handle the situation.

Erik was aware of the fact that Peter could have bolted by now, but that he had chosen to remain in the room.

 _He really is quite stupid_ , Erik figured.

If he did try to run, Erik reasoned, he could impale him with the metal rack on the closet. It was fortunate that the boy wasn't in his best condition because it would have been impossible to do anything if he used his full super human speed to run.

Speed, Erik reasoned, was quite a good advantage for a thief.

"I liked you" Erik smirked, looking down at the locket. He still remembered it bouncing in Nina's neck when she ran around the woods playing with her animal friends. "Well, I tolerated you, at least. You were sad and pathetic and vulnerable after your leg injury and I was having one of those try to be a better man moments, so I tolerated you"

What kind of man broke another one from the Pentagon without even hesitating? Erik should have guessed the boy was at threat.

"Man, just…" Peter started, but he was cut short by the murderous glance Erik threw at him.

"A thief. You're nothing but a scumbag lowlife, with a sad and pathetic life" Erik muttered the words, making a point to accompany each one with a rattle of every metallic object on the surroundings.

"I wasn't stealing it!" Peter cried, with his hands curled into fists. "I was just helping a kid and she hid…" Peter started babbling but suddenly something clicked inside him and his expression went blank. "I shouldn't have to explain this to you, anyway"

"Oh, you're right about that. Excuses won't help you now, kid" Erik was clenching his jaw with such force that the muscles had begun aching.

"You take a look and after half a second you decide that I am a thief?" Peter scoffed. "You do realize if I wanted to rob you, you wouldn't be able to stop me right?"

The teenager was right. In fact, Erik seemed to recall Charles mentioned something related to shop lifting charges. Once a thief…

"I will impale you before you reach the door" Erik threatened, taking a step to block the exit.

Peter gave Erik a mocking glance. "Yeah, sure old man. Loook, whatever. If you want to tell the Professor, do so. I'll explain myself to him and no one else."

Peter made a move to advance but Erik was quicker. The rack flew to his hands but remained out of his grip, floating over his head and aiming directly at the teen's heart. Truth to be told, Erik wasn't sure he could threw it and hit the target before the speeder got away, but at the very least he was at going to try.

"I don't think so" Erik warned.

Something changed in Peter. He dropped the casual attitude and took a fight stand, no doubt perfected along Raven's personal defense classes. It made Erik want to laugh. The boy seriously thought he stood a chance.

As soon as it happened, Peter's aggression evaporated. Instead, he put on a blank expressionless mask over his eyes, adorned with a cocky grin.

He even placed his hands on his pockets like he wasn't about to be killed.

"Whatever. Dude, no one wants to steal a shitty false necklace with two ugly bitches inside!" the teenager spat.

Something inside Erik exploded. He wasn't sure if it was the insult or the fact that someone had dug out the memories of Magda and Nina and brought back the painful feelings of regret and sadness that were permanetly entangled with their presence. Maybe it was the repressed anger Erik had shoved down during the last few months in his pathetic attempt to convince Charles (and maybe even himself) that he wasn't the same man that chose to obey the darkness inside him. Maybe it was just his true nature, resurfacing after realizing that trusting people and living a semi normal life wasn't an option.

Erik didn't even use his powers. He simply charged towards Peter.

The boy could have run. He had a clear path towards the door and even with his limping, he could have been half into another state in half a minute, if he put his hear on. He just seemed to shocked by the fact that Erik actually decided to attack him to even try to dogde the hit.

Erik tackled Peter onto the ground. The teenager tried to stand up, but Erik overpowered him easily. Peter started moving his hands frantically using his super human speed. One of his movements caused his elbow to collide with Erik's nose.

"Ugh!" Erik felt the stinging sensation of pain burning his face. Instinctively, he contra reacted with a well placed punch to Peter's face. The movement under Erik's weight stopped. Peter had frozen, staring wide openly at his attacker. He wasn't even trying to shield his face from the hits-not that Erik would hit him anyway, because it would be pathetic to attack someone who wasn't willing to fight back.

Surprisingly, Erik looked down at Peter's face and saw…tears. The teen's eyes were pooling and when he noticed Erik looking at him he turn his face to the side and tried to push him away. "Get off me asshole!"

"Aww so the little thief is going to cry now. Cry like a baby or fight me like a man, boy" Erik struggled forcefully to grasp Peter's hands.

"That's enough!" A voice roared from the doorway. Erik froze. He turned around to see Charles with a serious frown and a disapproving look in his face. "Erik, cut it out"

Erik contemplating murdering the boy in front of his old friend, just to see how badly he would react. The only con to that plan would be the fact that Hank, followed buy the rest of the students with various degrees of shock and horror printed in their faces, also stood by the Professor Finally Erik subsided, rolling off of the teen. Peter stay on the floor, curled up in a ball.

Erik snarled with disgust, "I didn't even hit him that hard. He's just weak"

The lifeless form of Peter's body flinched at the words. Erik sat back, with his arms to his side and a feral grin on his face. He felt his heart pounding and his powers aching with force. It was satisfying to be aware once more of the extent of his capabilities.

"Peter…", Charles begun, but before the words came out of his mouth, the speedster was gone. Erik was surprised that he didn't left behind one of those puffing clouds cartoon made when they ran.

Good riddance then. They didn't need a thief in the house. Erik might have actually done the school a favor.

And yet the look Charles was giving him gave no indication of such thing. In fact, his old friend seemed even pitiful, but not for his student but for the monster still in the room.

"Oh Erik", Charles voice seemed on the verge of tears, although Erik couldn't possibly guess why he was so affected by the incident. "What have you done?"


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm back! Okay, so my TOEFL test is right around the corner and I'm sooo not ready. So please if you spot any mistakes (or things that don't make sense to a native speaker) please let me know! It would be a great help.**

 **Thanks for your reviews. Though I don't have the time to repply to them individually, I appreciate every single comment. I try to give some insight into the motivation of both Peter and Erik on this chapter, so hopefully after you read it you'll forgive me for pitching them against each other.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-o-o-o-o**

The park was deserted at this time of the day. It wasn't dark yet, but with the fall around the corner, it was too cold for any kids to be playing outside. Peter was alone. The screeching sound of the rusted swing gave the place a creepy, eerie vibe, but Peter couldn't bring himself to put and end to it. Peter idientified the second person in the park the minute she stepped in but he said nothing as she took a seat next to him. They sat together in amicable silence until he decided he might as well begin talking.

"How did you even knew I was here?"

"You mentioned it once, remember?", Ororo recalled. "We were talking about our favorite places in the world?"

Peter scoffed. "Well, this is a close second to Fiji"

Ororo shook her head with a sad smile. "What happened back there Peter?"

"I just... I don't know... exploded, I guess", the teen didn't realized how badly he needed to talk it out until the actual talking began. "He had a picture of his daughter and wife, the ones who died."

"So?" Ororo encouraged.

"So, I always thought he had been this unstable free spirit kind of guy and it was comforting because it meant that he could never settle down and be a proper dad. And then I realize that he was a father, I think a good one, to someone else, just not me" Peter felt the bitter taste of his own explanation rolling through his mouth. "And I know it is stupid, but I was mad at that little girl because she had something I didn't and I know it is not as if she has taken it away from me it just.."

"...feels that way", Ororo concluded.

"Sorry I'm a nutcase" Peter teased. Something about talking to his friend made him feel better.

"Aren't we all?" Ororo stuck her tongue out playfully and Peter laughed. They swung softly for q few minutes. Peter had always liked swings. The view of the gray sky and the air hitting his face felt nice. If he could trade his abilities for other ones, Peter would choose to be able to fly in a heartbeat.

"Look I'm not a shrink or anything close, but you can't keep this up, Peter" Ororo planted her feet on the ground, making the swing stop abruptly. "You can't keep the secret and then act disappointed whenever Erk doesn't acts like a father"

"I know" Peter confessed and he meant his words. He had thought deeply about the cons an pros of coming out clean with his father and decided the secrecy wasn't doing either one any good.

"I'm going to tell him" Peter glanced sideways to his friend who seemed skeptical. "Today, I promise"

"Does this means we're going back to the mansion?" Ororo asked curiously

"Yes. I just need to do something else first" Peter then had a sudden idea and his mouth acted out before he could stop it. "How'd you like to meet my mom?"

o-o-o-o-o

"I am…" Erik began, but he had to stop when he was suddenly attacked by a pulsing headache.

"Attacking a student! A teenager boy that you out skill!" Charles voice boomed so loud, Erik had no doubt the kids spying outside the study would have no problems overhearing the conversation.

"Charles…" Erik began again, only to feel his brain exploding inside his cranium. He held his head with the palm of his hands, trying to subside the pain.

"He's a boy! Under my care!" Charles snapped, none of his usual soft british tone showing

"Stop it, Charles!" Erik screamed, feeling his head burning with pain.

And as suddenly as it had started, his headache was gone.

"If you ever hurt one of my students again, I will turn your brain into a smoothie", Charles threatened , gritting his teeth.

"Duly noted. I might have a minor aneurism now, just for your information" Erik massaged his sore temples.

"I don't care" Chales responded.

Erik was sure that if he could still do so, his friend would be pacing around his study. But since that was not an option, he simply stared angrily at Erik, probably trying to plan his murder.

"Look, I already said I was sorry. I wasn't planning on going at him the way I did…" Erik was too tired to be anything but completely sincere. He was still having trouble explaining the incident to himself, and now Charles was demanding an explanation too.

"Then why did you Erik? Why?" Charles voice was softer, but also a bit broken.

Erick knew the " _I am disappointed at you_ " speech by heart.

"Erik rubbed his hands against his face. "I don't know". Charles gave Erik an skeptical look. " I really dont. Charles. The little thief just pushed a button inside me…"

"We'll get to the robbery part son enough" Charles dismissed Erik's argument.

"Fair enough", Erik agreed. He sank back on the expensive leather couch. It had to be expensive, otherwise it would be so perfect for sulk in it. "He was holding Nina's locket and I just…"

"Don't give me the PTSD excuse, Erik. "Charles spat venomously.

"I won't. I mean, this was not about my family, Charles…not like…that" Erik spelled out difficultly, trying to get his ideas in order. "I had forgotten about the necklace, you know? I didn't even remember it was there until I saw the boy had it" Erik gave out a dry humorless chuckle. "I hadn't though of my family in a long time, you know" Erik shook his head slowly. "I use to think about them always before I started living here"

"So this is my fault? Did I make you forget your family by forcing you t olive here and now you get to punch people in retaliation?" Charles started getting riled up.

Erik had to laugh at his friend boiling temper. "Relax, Charles. You don't get to blame yourself for this". Erik paused and then added, "I just realized that the last months have been so… normal. So calm. And I hand't feet calm in a long time. I caught myselfalmost laughing out loud last week when Kurt managed to get that toy soldier stuck on his nose"

"Make a point, would you" Charles pushed, but Erik could sense he wasn't half as furious and murderous as he was a minute ago.

"I'm living this normal life! I'm happy! I've moved on, you see!" Erik raised his voice, frustrated by the fact that Charles wasn't comprehending his point. "I don't want to move on! I don't want to forget them!" Erik voiced, with a raspy voice.

There was a long silence. The two men in the room stared at each other, trying to decipher the thoughts inside both their heads and the ones in their opponent's. Finally, Charles sighed, a clear sign for Erik that his old pal had given up his anger.

"Jesus Erik. You don't have to be angry all the time, you know? Spending you whole life in misery won`t honor their memories." Chales interceded, again falling into the conciliator role.

"I know. But anger is easy, it is familiar…" Erik gulped down the knot in his throat. "For a secod , when I was punching the kid…I felt good. Powerful. And I liked it. What does that say about me?"

"That you are a sadistic fuck up. Nothing we didn't know already", Charles offered with a sad grin.

Erik snorted. "If it helps my case, I really didn't though he could just take it like that. I though he'd fight me back.

Chales now looked like he had accidentally run over a puppy with his wheelchair.

"What?" Erik snapped.

"Of course he would hit you back, Erik." Charles licked his lips, a nervous habit Erik was also familiar with. "I though he would tell you at some point, when he was ready, but I guess this situation kind of forces things. Peter is your…"

There was a brief commotion at the door at this point, followed by a female voice yelling, "Let me though or I'll kill you with this high heel boy" and seconds later, Magda Maximoff in all her glory, burst into the study.

She crossed her arms and furiously asked, "Okay, where the fuck is my kid?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Guys…I'm taking my TOEFL test tomorrow, so wish me luck. Please if you note any weird mistakes (other tan the inevitable typo) don't hesitate to point them out. Seriously, you all have been awesome by boosting my confidence with your positive comments on my writting. I can't thank you enough.**

 **Enjoy the extra-long chapter I just wrote for you!**

 **-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**

"Mayra...", Erik said with a breathless voice, barely above a whisper.

"Shut up Erik" Mayra brusquely responded, leaving Erik baffled.

"Mayra..."Erik started again, this time taking a shaky step towards the woman he had left over a decade ago.

She was beautiful, even after all this years. The way her black hair softly fell over her shoulders, the soft curve of her lips and the delicate twitch of her eyes when she was filled with emotion.

And she was absolutely furious.

"I've never expected you to be the father of the year, Erik. Not even to bond with Peter because he's beyond bonding and fully raised. But could you at least care enough not to let him die under your watch?" Mayra spat out coldly.

Erik's mind slowly emerged out of the fog it had sunk in and he could feel a question suddenly burning the tip of his tougue.

"Why would I care about Peter at all?" Erik heard Charles' breath hitching.

"Because he's your son you massive insensitive excuse of a man!" Mayra's words bounced inside Erik's brain.

His brain had decided to stop working entirely. He felt the need to ask questions; to defend himself from such and outrageous and sudden accusation, but all he could do was stare at Mayra's face, which exhibited a variety of conflicting emotions. First she seemed angry, but slowly her features begun shifting to something closer to disappointment.

"Excuse me Mrs. Maximoff" Erik turned around when Charles spoke. The Professor gave his friend and apologetic look, probably trying to read Erk's emotions through his features or maybe even attempting to read his thoughts (which Erik figured should be tricky since he had zero emotions or feelings at the moment) "You said Peter was injured?" Charles voice was delicate, and he was in full crisis-solving mode.

Mayra just shook her head, giving up at obtaining any reaction from her ex and focused on the only man apparently capable of speaking.

"That's all your guy said", Mayra said with a tone that revealed she was not close to feeling satisfied by that bit of information.

Charle's paled subtly and even in his shocked state, Erik was able to catch the brief sideways glance his friend gave him.

"Oh for Christ sake! I barely gave him a scratch Charles!" Erik whined, feeling like the room had become suddenly too small to be in.

Mayra gaped and Charles frowned.

"Be very careful about the next words that leave your mouth, old sport" Charles warned telepatically.

Erik snapped, tired of being accused of being something he was most definitely not.

"I didn't hurt the kid! I wish I did and I'll buy a beer to the man that put him in the hospital, but I won't stand here and be part of this ridiculous conversation. He's your student, your problem", as he spoke, Erik felt more riled up though he couldn't quite pinpoint the origin of his fury. He turned at Mayra, who had a murderous look in her eyes. "You should know your kid is a thief, a waste of mutant genes and an ingrate..."

Before he could finish his phrase, Erik felt a set of knuckles connecting with his cheek.

"You deserved that. 100%" Charles mentally stated as Erik stumbled back with a surprised look and Mayra stood infront of him with a sore hand and a proud expression.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..

"So, this is where the madness comes from", Ororo playfully shoved Peter's side as the entered the house.

Peter's mother had insisted he took a key with him even after he announced his intentions of moving into Xavier's school permanently. "So you know that you can always come home", her mother announced as she dangled the rocket shaped metal keyholder in her hands. Peter tried not to think too much about that moment because it actually made his eyes water a bit. Man, allergies suck.

When Peter noticed his mother's car wasn't parked in the driveway, he figured she had taken an extra shift in the hospital and that it would be a while before she came back.

"C'om on lets go to my room", Peter had to drag the young girl to the basement entrance. For some unexplainable reason, Ororo was captivated by the sight of the inside of the Maximoff's residence. To receive such awed looks for something Peter wasn't particularly proud (after all, the house was practically falling apart for lack of manteinance) made the silver haired mutant feel sheepish. It also gave him a dose of second hand guilt, as he realized his Egyptyian friend had grown up on a rougher environment and he, being a spoiled and vain brat, had nothing to complain about in comparison

"So, there's the arcade and we can play a while until my mom gets here... There's also a minibar, but I think my mom must forgot to replenish it while I was away. We could order pizza or maybe you can stay and have dinner. Mom would love that", as he spoke, Peter pretended to check his stuff, moving things a couple inches just to return them to the same place. Secretly he was awaiting for Ororo to react at his small man-cave.

"Pac- man, cool!" Ororo sounded sincerely enthusiastic as she approached the game. The board was a bit dusty but Peter quickly zoomed closer ro plug it in. He was eager to show Ororo his gaming skills, so it was very disappointing when the screen remained black even after he flicked the switch on.

"I don't get it. Maybe Lorna broke it. I told her not to touch it, which means she probably did", Peter muttered.

Ororo had walked to the light switch and she flicked it a few times without response. "Power's off" she stated. She seemed to catch the look of disappointment on Peter's face because she quickly suggested. "We could get coffee while we wait for your mom to come back. Or tea if you want..."

Peter was about to say that coffee sounded great, when the door at the top of the stairs shut closed. "It's just the boring old ghost that lives here", Peter joked, making his way upstairs in an impossible fast manner. "Did I forgot to mention the place is totally haunted?"

Peter yanked the door open, but it didnt buldge. He tried again, making a real effort, but got the same results. Ororo gave Peter a questioning look and then her gaze deflected to the green smoky fog that had begun leaking from under the door.

Peter pulled the door, this time, with all his streght. The fog was ill looking green, with a dark texture that gave the speedster a bad feeling in his gut.

"Peter, what's wrong?" Ororo called, making her way to the door and joining Peter's efforts to open the entrance.

She probably could tell from Peter's untypical serious behavior that something bad was happening.

The smoke begun rising and it was up to their knees when Peter pulled his shirt off and hastily passed it to Ororo. "Cover your face! Now! Hold your breath"

The speed in Peter's superpowerful brain kicked in, telling him the smoke was some kind of trap. He wasn't a hundred percent sure about that conclusión, but he figured it would be better to embarrass himself permanently in front of his friend for overreacting than being smothered by some mysterious toxic.

Ororo did as she was told, and then tried to conjure a wash of wind to disperse the smoke, but it only made it less condensed and more diluted in the air.

"Step back!" Peter ordered. He zapped to the opposite Wall and then ran full force and speed against the wooden door. His shoulder made a sickening snapping sound and the wood crunched a little bit under his weight.

Peter repeated the action a couple dozen times with his enhanced speed, as Ororo begun coughing and gasping for air.

Just as he gave the final push, Peter felt his shoulder being dislocated by the force of the hit and he screamed in pain, sending a good amount of the mysterious smoke to his lungs. He tried not to dwell too much on the fact that he had probably just poisoned himself to dead and quickly grabbed Ororo on a bride-style mode.

He succeeded to retrieve his friend and make his way through the door using his imposible speed, but he still caught a glance of a couple of smoke grenade's empty cans by the door.

Peter made his way out of the house and kept running until he reached the nearby forest that surrounded his neighborhood. Just as he reached the first line of trees, his knees buckled, sending his body to the ground.

Peter was aware of Ororo's body firmly clenched to his naked skin; fact that would make him blush if it wasn't for the asphyxiating feeling on his chest. The Egtyptian girl was still coughing, but she seemed otherwise unharmed. She looked up at Peter and, struggling to catch her breath asked:

"Peter, are you okay?"

Peter really wanted the answer to be an affirmative one, but he was interrupted when he was bout to reply, by the sudden urge to lay down and take a nap on the muddy ground.

In front of him, a very distorted looking version of Ororo looked at him with concern.

"Peter!" Oror's voice was distorted and echoed and when she took a bit of distance from him, Peter lost his balance and fell on the ground.

"Run…" he managed to gurggle out, before feeling a chocking sensation oppress his windpipe.

"I'm not leaving you! C'om on, Peter!" Ororo cried out, trying to pull Peter's body from the ground.

The speeder body ahd turned into jello and was not cooperating with Oror's efforts. Peter's breain was slowing down as well, making it imposible for him to conjure any rational thoughts.

He knew what that meant.

"Run. It's a trap", Peter whispered.

Ororo was franatically tring to push both of them through the forests. Peter could hear the sound of vehivles approaching.

He clumsily pushed Ororo away, exhausting his last reserve of energy. "Go to the mansión, get help. Leave me"

The last thing Peter saw before passing out was the conflicted emotions on his friend's eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**THIS WAS HARD TO WRITE. I mean, at first I kept making everyone freak out to much about Peter** **'** **s disappearance and then I had to turn it down a notch. And now I feel everyone is a bit dull.**

 **Anyway, don** **'** **t hate this chapter too much. Please. I promise we** **'** **ll have a bit of Peter on the next one (and even Lorna because I** **'** **m a sucker for big brother feels. Also, I still haven** **'** **t make up my mind about making this Charles/Erik, but I can of hinted that in this chapter, so it would be ambiguous enough to let you decide.**

 **Oh! I almost forgot. I scored 105 out of 120 in my TOEFL test! Thanks for all your sweet comments and encouragement, it meant the world to me to have your support!**

 **-.-.-.-.**

"I would like to urge both of you to act as adults", Charles commented dryly. "Not that it would make you change your behavior, I just feel morally obligated to do it"

Erik wanted to protest. He'd like to explain that it was outrageous to expect him to stand idly as Mayra waltzed into her life and announced him to be a father, after denying him contact with his supposed offspring for seventeen years.

(Not that he had made an effort to keep tabs on her life or even leave a number or something for her to call)

For all Erick knew, his ex girlfriend might have gotten in bed with all the mutant population in the US. There was not a strong case to believe Peter was related to him in any way.

(Even if Mayra had confessed to Erick once that she had only slept with another guy prior to their relationship and it would be extremely out of character for her to develop a sudden nymphomaniac streak)

And even if Erik was a father, why should he be responsible for the actions of a young derailed teen.

(Even if he felt a tight knot in his throat now that he recalled Peter's blank expression as he punched him)

Mayra had recoiled after hitting Erick. She seemed to have abandoned her anger and now she simply looked hurt. She was staring at the garden, visible from the large windows in the study, with such intensity that Erik wished for a moment he could have Charles powers to know what she was thinking.

And then Raven stormed into the study. "Charles!" Her voice oozed concern and it was such a strange occurrence for her to be so altered that both men in the study were immediately alerted.

"It's Ororo...she called from a pay phone near here", Raven cast a glance at the woman standing between the two men. Erick noticed Mayra straightening her posture. Raven took in the subtle, unspoken signal and with a soft tone, uncharacteristic in her, added: "Peter was abducted"

The grim news sunk into the already tense ambiance of the room.

"I sent Kurt after her", Raven informed, looking at Charles for approval. The telepath simply advanced towards the door, followed closely by Mayra.

Once Charles reached the doorway of the study, he signaled Mayra to step ahead of him. "Raven will take you to the living room Mrs Maximoff. I'll be joining you in a minute"

Mayra nodded weakly and stepped outside. Raven lingered, looking at Erik with curiosity.

"Raven, assemble the X men in the common room and make sure the younger students retreat to their chambers", Charles ordered, giving the shape shifter a not-so-subtle-cue to disappear.

After she was gone, Charles addressed Erik.

"I know the confusion you're feeling right now, old friend. It is normal to experience a mixture of feelings when faced with such tremendous change in your life…"

Erik snarled, "How many times have I told you to stay the hell out of my head?!"

"I am not reading your mind, you idiot!" Charles barked back, with such a sharp edge that Erik was taken back.

"I am trying to be your friend and explain you that the next move you make regarding the news of your newly acquired son will determine your whole relationship with him in the future!", Charles had raised his voice to the point that he was yelling.

Erik tried very hard not to point out the fact that the vein in his friend's forehead seemed to be about to burst. He figured it was not the time to voice his observation.

"Just a minute ago you were crying about how much you missed having a family! And now the universe, for God knows what reason, has decided to offer you a new chance to form a lasting human bond with your son and I'll be dead if I let you piss off on that chance!" Charles finished with resolution.

Erik felt strangely touched by his friend's concern. He wasn't even sure if he believed Mayra's revelation to be true or if he wanted for it to be real. But he decided he could at least leave the door open to make that decision at some point, instead of burning the bridges now.

Slowly and reluctantly, his feet began moving towards the door. Once he reached Charles, Erick looked down at his paralyzed friend and growled. "For Christ sake, Charles. That thing is disgusting", and then, feeling a strange tingling in the point of his fingers, Erik touched Charles inflated forehead lightly, before sliding his hand to the shoulder of the telepath.

Charles didn't moved…Erik wasn't sure if his friend was even breathing. They stared at each other for a split second. Then Erik lightly squeezed Charles shoulder and exited the room.

-.-

"I don't know…I only saw them over my shoulder and I don't think they were more than six…or eight", Ororo stuttered. She was sitting in the worn out couch in the living room. Kurt had slipped a coat on her shoulders, but one of her arms was uncovered, because Hank was taking a blood to determine the effects of the toxic gas on the mutant's body.

"Try to remember, Ororo. Were they military?" Charles tried out.

Ororo frowned. Erik could tell that the girl was trying her best to give as much detail as possible, but he doubted the interrogatory would have any results.

So far, they knew whoever took Peter had a way to suppress his powers (nobody talked about it but they had no clue how this formula worked or if its effects were lasting. But the look of pity in everyone's eyes as they started at the Egyptian mutant said it all)

"They were wearing camouflaged clothing… I think", Ororo's responses became increasingly vague. The girl had been to scared to ask for help on several occasions, fearing Peter's captors would be tipped by her alert, so she had ran over 5K before deciding she was safe enough to reach a pay phone.

Extracting information from the girl was already challenging not only because of her exhaustion and distress but also by some kind of mental block that prevented Charles to dig into her memories.

The same block that stopped the telepath from locating Peter or communicating with him, even with the aid of Cerebro.

"We'll have to this the old way. Raven, take Jean back to Peter's house and find any clues you can about his captors or their plans. Maybe bring bag one of those gas canisters, if they were careless enough to leave them behind. Ask the neighbors for suspicious activity or vehicles in the area…" Charles instructed.

"I'll take another look at those files on missing mutants. If this is really Stryker's work, as we suspect, there has to be a connection" Charles explained.

"What about us?" Scott eagerly asked. The teen was referring to the very scared and confused group of youngsters behind him. It was obvious that the lost of his friend had affected them deeply but Erik admired the fact that it also seemed to prompt them to act. Each one of the new generation of X men seemed ready to jump into danger, if it meant they would find their friend.

"Gear up. As soon as we find out where they are keeping him, we'll draw an extraction plan", Charles suggested. "Ororo, you should rest, Hank can give you something to sleep in case you don't think…"

"Oh, hell no!" the Egyptian mutant stood up, with her fists curled and a determined look on her face. The room felt silent.

"You're not up for a…" Charles started with a condescending tone.

"Peter risked his life to save me! I am going to save him back, and if you try to stop my, God be my witness, I'll roll your wheelchair down a cliff!" Ororo barked.

Just as she finished, there was a rumbled of thunder so loud that it show the whole mansion.

Everyone, including Ororo, let out a collective sight of relieve.

Charles was grinning widely when he addressed the girl again. "Suit up, then"

Everyone seemed to be sprung into action by that last statement. Suddenly the room was empty and the only people that remained were Mayra and Erik.

Erik wasn't actually sure if he should be doing anything, since Charles hadn't mentioned him while handing instructions, but he figured sitting in the same room with his ex would be pretty awkward, so he turned around to join Hank and Charles in the lab,

He was stopped by a female voice.

"Guatemala"

Erik turned around slowly to face Mayra, who was still glued to the same seat she had occupied when Ororo materialized in the room, clenching Kurt's body for her dear life.

Thoughout he girl's retell of the incident, Erik had snuck a few glanced to his former lover, to see if he could spot any traces of panic or concern. His effort was useless. Mayra remained in the zombie-like state she had adopted in the study. She didn't even flinched when Ororo mentioned Peter had lost his powers or that he had hurt his arm while trying to bust the door of the basement open.

It didn't make sense to Erik. Even if he didn't buy the whole daddy sappy story, he still felt anger burning in his chest when Charles mentioned Stryker could be involved in the abduction. He felt the need to do something, to punch someone.

As Ororo spoke, Erik recalled the meeting with Moira in DC, particularly the bits where she described the activities that had been taking place in Stryker's facilities before the CIA raided them. The image of Peter, lying down on an ER with his chest open and a bunch of masked scientist poking his organs materialized in Erik's brain.

And no matter how had he tried, it wouldn't go away.

So it just didn't made sense for Erik that Mayra was so chill about the whole missing son situation.

"Excuse me?" Erik asked, perplexed.

"Guatemala" Mayra repeated, although that didn't cleared up a god damned thing for Erik. "If you bring Peter back to me, I'll promise we'll move to Guatemala and you'll never hear from us again"

Mayra locked eyes with Erik and her hopeful expression made the pieces of the puzzle click on Erik's brain. She was counting on the father of his son to bring him back alive.

Stupidly overwhelmed with the realization that Mayra had placed so much faith on him, Erik just managed to blurt out. "Why Guatemala?"

Mayra blinked a few times before answering simply, "Well, is the farthest place from here I could come up with"

"It's not even in another continent", Erik reasoned, still numbed enough to follow the pointless path of conversation he had chosen.

"Erik.." Mayra began

"There are gangs there…and drug dealers…and mosquitoes…" Erik listed, trying very hard not to be drawn to a conversation he was not ready to have.

"That's racist and not even true. Erik, we need you" Mayra said softly. "He needs you. And I've never asked you for anything..."

"Please, don't do this…" Erik whispered.

Myara ignored him. "I didn't ask you to stay when you declared you were leaving me. I didn't even ask why. I didn't try to contact you when I saw you lifting a stadium or trying to kill Nixon. I, never one, asked anything from you", Mayra declared.

She didn't even sound bitter about the whole ordeal. Erik recognized she wasn't recriminating him anything but rather pledging a case.

"But now I'm asking you to get our son back", Mayra's lips were pressed on a thin line. She stood up and walked over towards Erik. Slowly, she placed a shaky hand on his chest.

Erik delighted at the contact, staring down at the eyes of a woman she once loved. A wave of old but still powerful memories flooded his mind.

"And if you don't believe Peter is your son, then do this for me. Do this for the many times I patched you up in my kitchen after you got into a bar fight. Or the times I talked with you till the next morning after you woke up in the middle of the night with a nightmare. Do this, because when you left, I cried for a whole day, If you ever loved me, then do this for me" Mayra's voice was barely above whispering when she finished and a single tear rolled down her face.

Instinctively, Erik reached to whip it off. "You were always the stronger one. Even now, you are handling this so calmly…"

"I am a mess, Erik", Mayra shook her head, a small smile forming on her lips.

"No, you are calm and collected and I…·

·"I left Lorna in the car two hours ago and she's still there." Mayra blurted out. "And I just remembered that. I am a mess Erik, but the only thing that is keeping me from actually loosing my shit s that I've seen what you can do. And I know you'll give anyone who hurt my son a reason to with for their dead."

It was a sweet moment. A sweet and tender moment that made Erik felt all gooey inside. And so, as he expected, Mayra just had to mess it up.

"Now fuck off and put on those stupid latex suits everyone is wearing"


	7. Chapter 7

**OMG guys, one of you pointed out I kept spelling** **Erick instead of Erik. I'm sorry! I had managed to correct some of it while I was typing but it kept popping out. Anyway, thanks for that guest review and I'll try not to mess up again. I know Lorna shouldn't be six but I swear I can't write kids older than six. Anyway, I have a bunch of homework waiting for me and since it's kind of a sad and rainy afternoon here in Mexico, I wanted to write something to keep my mind off the massive amoutn of work piling on my desk. Thanks for all your encouragement and I hope you have a great week!**

 **-.-.-.**

When Peter was six, he decided Mindy Danes, his next door neighbor, was the prettiest girl in the world and that he would do anything to keep her happy and worship her for the rest of his life. So when Pudding, her stupid Persian cat, decided to climb up the tallest tree in the neighborhood, Peter immediately volunteered to retrieve the mutt. He escalated the three with great care and concentration, aware of the worried eyes of Mindy following his small frame's every move. Eventually, he got to the branch where Pudding was sitting.

Pudding, the ungrateful son of a bitch he was, wasn't impressed by Peter's act of bravery nor was coaxed by the boys calling. Since Peter wasn't sure if pushing the cat down would be appreciated by Mindy, he had to use a softer (and in retrospective quite foolish approach). The silver haired boy advanced on the branch slowly, ignoring the crunching sounds of the three under his weight.

The branch got more wobbly as he moved forward and there was a point where Peter thought it would be better to turn around, get down and wait for the professionals... Or at least someone's parent to complete the mission.

And then Mindy, in A sweet and innocent voice cheered, "You're almost there, Peter!"

After that, there was no way Peeter could have back down from the challenge. So he took one a step more... And ended up falling three meters down and getting a concussion.

So that's how Peter knew what a concussion felt like. His mouth felt like if someone had stuffed it with cotton balls, which felt as disgusting as it sounded. His ears were buzzing and when he finally tried to open his eyes, he had to shut them close again, because he was blinded by the strong beam of light coming from a reflector placed right on top of his face. Peter tried to shield his face from the uncomfortable light, but he realized then he couldn't move his arms...or legs.

He opened his eyes one more time, ignoring the tripping black spots on his vision. He tried to look around, only to find his head was immobilized as well.

Peter tried not to panic. But it was kind of hard to stay calm after being pinned down like a dissected frog.

He swallowed and tried to get a grip on his never stopping trail of thought. He grasped a thought and held on it with all his forces: Ororo got away.

He knew that for a fact because some of the soldiers in the van where he was transported were bragging about what they would have done to the girl if they had caught her. That had let to some witty retort form Peter, which had earned him a smack on his nape with one of the soldier's rifle, hence the concussion.

Concentrating on that fact, Peter managed to calm his breathing to an almost normal pace. If Ororo got away, that meant help was on the way. Peter would just have to wait.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Anything?" Erik asked, leaning on the desk in the lab, where Charles had arranged the relevant extracts of Moira's files.

The telepath ignored his friend's question and kept staring at the photographs. The images showed torn out limbs floating in formol and medical tables with corpses opened and gutted. They weren't the kind of thing you stared at for four hours, which was exactly what Charles had been doing.

"Maybe we should split up and visit each of Stryker's old facilities..." Erik suggested

Charles simply frowned, but said nothing.

"I am going to talk to Dr. McTagger directly. You are too emotionally invested Charles. She could be withholding information from us and you would be too busy ogling her to realize so", Erik felt his irritation growing. He started moving around the room, unable to shut down his nervous energy.

"I do not ogle Dr. Mc...!" Charles lifted his gaze

"Maybe we should take a more aggressive approach. I bet there's a file on Stryker on some dark government basement... I'll take Kurt and.." Erik began muttering, too carried away in his thoughts to notice the annoyed look on his friend's face.

"And then what? Look around for a file with the words Tops Secret Clue To Everything stamped on the front? For Christ sake, Erik, we have to plan this through and unless your powers have expanded to a new field I'm unaware, I see the same thing you are seeing. There's no short cuts" Charles was massaging his temples. "And enough with the fucking pacing!" The telephath snapped.

Erik was confused for a split second. He hadn't been aware of the moment when he started circling the room. He looked down, a strange burning sensation tingling in his cheeks. "I'll go upstairs to check on the students"

"Yes, perhaps that would be better", Charles said, unable to hide his relief.

Erik rolled his eyes. He wasn't that annoying.

"And I'll make you a sandwich. You get bitchy when you're hungry", Erik noted as he left the room. The audible groan his friend made in response, elicuted a tiny grin on the metal bender'.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"So, we take off the suits?" Scott asked with caution. He had been sitting on the driveway, accompanied by his fellow Xmen, waiting for orders to carry on the rescue party. But when it started getting dark, the students came inside.

Erik noticed Scott was very reluctant to turn in for the night. Erik understood; leaving someone at the mercy of a pyscoyic madman was not his desired course of action.

Raven, who was sitting across the dinner table in her natural blue form, threw a meaningful glance to Erik.

"Yes, I think it's safe to say we won't be going anywhere tonight", Erik ventured cautiously.

Making a poor effort to hide his disappointment, Scott nodded and left the kitchen.

On his way out, Scott had to move around to avoid colliding with Mayra, who was accompanied by a young girl with long brown hair and big eyes. The little girl, about six years old, looked up to Scott in awe.

Mayra gently took her hand and pulled her into the kitchen. Erik noticed the vacillation on his ex girlfriend's movements, probably caused by his presence in the room. Erik sipped his already cold cup of tea and relaxed his body frame in an effort to appear as non threatening as possible. Mayra gave him an imperceptible nod of agreement.

The ex couple had forgotten about the other (and a half) person in the kitchen, until they heard a sharp intake of breath. Erik turned to see that the little girl was staring with wide eyes and gaping mouth at Raven. The shape shifter, who noticed the girl's gaze, quickly changed her appearance to her default blonde look.

Nobody dared to speak after that. Mayra was blushing furiously and she was already proyecting an apologetical vibe. Erik noticed Raven had put on an indifference mask but her eyes were filled with fear and sadness. Since Apocalypse, Raven had made the decision to stick around and Erik noticed that she began letting her blue form show more often, probably benefiting from the positive energy and acceptance of being surrounded by mutants. Okay, maybe Charles had a point with the whole forming a community thing.

But that also meant that she almost forgot what rejection felt like. Erik wished he could shake her negative thoughts off, and convince her that no matter what ignorant, petty humans thought, she was the most amazing…

"Are you a superhero?" The Little girl asked, with eyes still round as plates.

Raven looked around, unsure. Her doubt only seemed to make her appear younger and more fragile; it was a rare sighting for Erik.

"Lorna, that's not a polite thing to ask..." Mayra spoke up, shooting a worried glance at the two mutants in the room.

"Sorry", the Little girl, Lorna, apologized and looked down at her feet.

"We'll just make ourselves some tea and go out of your way", Mayra said in an excessive polite tone. Erik knew her well enough to realize she was embarrassed by the incident and trying her best to reassure Raven.

Silence settled in as Mayra fumbled with the kettle. Erik kept staring at Raven, who seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a secret" a small stuttering voice started and al leyes shifted to Lorna, who had begun circling the table over to where Raven was sitting. "My brother is a superhero too. He can run really fast". Lorna glowed with pride and excitement at that last sentence. Raven, who had unconsciously thrown herself back in her seat as the younger girl approached, frowning with indecision.

"But Peter says that there are superheroes who like to keep their powers a secret. Is your superpower to turn all blue?" There was no malice in the girl's voice, note ven a tiny bit of fear slipping through. She was beaming with curiosity and intrigue and Erik felt something loosening up inside him.

That little girl wasn't old enough to understand the prejudice and rejection that their differences implied. She only saw the potential in them.

"No, that's just how I look", Raven replied. The shape shifter kept staring at Lorna like if she was a bomb about to explode.

"Can I see?" Lorna asked with hope and Erik noticed she was already leaning forwar and squinting her eyes, probably looking for a sign of change in Raven's body.

Raven gulped. Erik had guessed she would probably snap at the infant and cause this situation to end in tears and screaming. But then, to his surprise, Raven's pink tone began changing to a familiar shade of blue. Lorna gasped and let out a squeak of joy. Raven's whole stance was defensive, like a cat waiting to bolt. Her eyes had a defiance shade, practically daring the girl tos ay something insulting.

But Lorna didn't notice any of that. And without even thining, she extended her hand and touched Raven's skin.

Raven 's body tensed, but then, just when Erik was about to intervene (he figured Mayra wouldn't sit back as her daughter was skinned alive and gutted, and he wasn't in the mood to fight Raven), when Lorna whispered something that shocked him.

"It's so pretty…" the girl was fully focused on the blue skin, tracing the patterns with her fingers.

Raven shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but she didn't move her hand away.

"What do they mean? The thingy's?" Lorna pointed out, looking up at Raven's naturally yellow orbits. Once again, Erik found no trace of repulsion on the girl's features.

" _Remarkable"_ , he noted mentally.

"I..I don't know", Raven's voice was strangely coarse, but Erik pretended not to notice.

"I need my markers. Don't move!" Lorna said excitedly, as she ran pout of the room.

Raven just stared at the spot of her hand that had been touched like she had never seen it before.

"Brace yoursef. You just became the subject for a whole sketching pad", Mayra commented casually, but Erik spotted the small smile on her lips.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Mayra was not exaggerating. Lorna was having a full meltdown trying to get Raven's skin tone right. Her tounge poked out of her mouth as she frowned in concentration, comparing two identically looking blue pencil colors.

Raven seemed amused by the girl's efforts and she patiently sat with Lorna in the living room, as per her request, to be drawn.

"She was really excited to meet other superheroes", Mayra commented, as she and Erik looked at the scene from the doorway. "She gets mad at Peter because he can't stay still long enough to pose for her. But he tries. He tried really hard and lasted about ten minutes before bolting"

Erik looked up and was concerned when he saw Mayra's glossy eyes. She just laughed lightly and clenched her teacup harder against her chest.

"I'm sorry to accuse you of lying….I know that you would never do such thing…" Erik begun, feeling his throat close at the implications of his apology.

"Peter is not expecting you to do anything, Erik, relax. You'll have time to figure out how you want to roll with this and you'll figure it out" Mayra's features were warm with affection.

"I don't even know him. I can't.." Erik wan't sure if "love" was the right word to use.

With Nina, he had felt a strong protectiveness and fierce adoration for the minute that she took her first breath. His feelings for Peter were a lot more casual an unattached. He wasn't even sure if his urge to retrieve him was caused by his hatred for Stryker, his debt to Mayra or a simple sense of solidarity towards a fellow mutant.

He was the worst father ever.

"When we met, I knew you had your reasons to refuse forming a family with me and I knew they were some stuff that we would never talk about. I saw the way your body tensed when we crossed a girl in the park or the distracted look in your eyes when you Heard a baby crying", Mayra admitted. Erik was shocked. He had no idea he had projected his emotions so loudly at that time. Mayra wasn't a telepath, but she was close enough to scratch the surface.

"I'm just saying that maybe Peter could bring something into your life… not the same thing you had before.. but perhaps something…different", Mayra was clearly uncomfortable with the feelings talk.

"Maybe" Erik offered a way out of the conversation and Myra accepted it gracefully, knowing better tan to push the subject further.

Meanwhile, Lorna hummed happily, as Raven tried to peak at the design the girl was making.

"It's nice what you and Charles have going on here…" Mayra trailed off. "I'm happy you found some who loves you, Erik. You deserve love"

Erik's head whipped around so fast he felt his neck snapping. "That's just ridiculous. Charles doesn't love me… that's just… we have a complicated relationship" Erik fumbled. Mayra just smirked as she took a sip from her cup. Erik felt his cheeks burning. "Not like that. Jesus, woman get your head out of the gutter. He's an old acquaintance and.."

"Whatever you say Erik", Mayra teased. Erik growled, but simply shook his head in defeat. He had forgotten how childish Mayra could be at times.

"Oh, my God!" Lorna screamed. Both adults refocused on the scene before their eyes. A very terrified Kurt had just entered the living room, and apparently dropped a pile of books he was carrying. Kurt was staring with a horrified expression at the small girl, who was grinning like a mad man.

"Mom, I'm going to need more markers!" Lorna whined, jumping with excitement.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Peter had actually dozed off while he was waiting for any conditions in his environment to change. He had a very cool dream that involved colorful wigs, glittery vest, Charles bald head, and an awesome idea to form a Swedish cover hit band.

He had to file that thought for later when he was woken up abruptly by a slamming door. From his position, Peter couldn't actually see the door, but that didn't stop him from whipping his head around like an idiot, trying to see something…anything.

"Mr. Maximoff, I'm glad to see you have awoken from your rest", a familiar face appeared in Peter's peripheral vision. Stryker looked every bit an ashole as he had looked when Peter was captured by him.

"Dude, you're going to get in so much trouble when they find out I'm missing", Peter commented cooly, even though he was aching from his uncomfortable position and that he hadn't received any signs to nurture his hope to be rescued so far. "Have you met Charles? The dude is like super chill flower power almost always but when someone pisses his cereal he turns into a badass motherfucker that is going to kick your ass so far that you'll be looking for it till Christmas"

Stryker simply cocked an eyebrow, obviously unimpressed by Peter's speech.

"Okay, give me a break, I can't come up with good retorts after your gorilla just gave me permanent brain damage", Peter kept babbling. He stretched his head in an effort to keep the military man on his field of vision.

"It is not Professor Xavier that interests me at this particular time. However, maybe you could tell me a bit more about Erik Lehnsherr." Stryker gave the mutant teen a creepy toothy grin that made Peter feel chills in his spine. "Or should we call him daddy?"

Peter had literally nothing to protect himself. His powers were still out, he was immobilized, no one knew where he was captive and his rescue mission seemed to be taking its sweet time to get hto him. But he'd be dammed if he'd let Stryker break him.

"Oh, I'll have to talk to Mags and tell him to wrap his little magnet up. I can't have a half brother as ugly as you, it's a disgrace." Peter whined, using the same annoying and pretentious tone that he used to mock the jogs who use to tease for his silver hair back in highschool

"Humor, that's cute" Stryker vlened his jaw and Peter noticed the irritation in his tone. "Let's see how long you can keep that up, shall we?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Peter tried to keep up his brave face for as long as he could. Even after tears started flowing down his face, he wouldn' t give them the satisfaction to scream.

Peter had seen people getting tortured before, in the movies. But he never imagined that the worst part of it, would be when they actually stopped. That and the moments of preparation in between punishments, because it gave his brain enough time to come up with a thousand different ways he could be about to suffer.

And then when the torture finally begun, it was ten thousand times worse that whatever he could have imagined.

First a bunch of identically looking goons entered the room. Their faces were stony and expressionless and it made Peter wonder if they were used to the sight of a strapped teen on a surgical table.

Then White Coat came in. White Coat had white hair and white framed glasses. White Coat was a million years old, and he moved at a super slowed pace that would ennerve anyone, but mostly Peter because his power made it seem like the dude took ages to make a move. White Coat had blue piercing eyes, with a predator feeling like the one you'd expect to see on a tiger, but he was hunched back like a gargola, enough to take off the intimidating factor of his look.

And White Coat had a nice voice. He had a grampa sort of stuttering and a soft tone that made Peter feel like he was wrapped in wool expensive sweaters made by hand in some cottage in the mountains.

But White Coat only said horrible things in a foreign language. Peter knew they were horrible, even thought he couldn't understand them because every time White Coat said something, Peter ended up in pain.

Like, the first minute when he came inside the room and barked something at one of the soldiers and seconds later, one of the military men was drowsing Peter in cold wáter. So cold that it kind of made him gasp for air and piss his pants at the same time.

And for a split second, Peter actually thought that was it. That making him wet his pants and feeling his wet clothes sticking to his skin was some kind of psychological torture, which would be messed up, but not really that bad.

It didn't help that Peter couldn't really see what White Coat did, every time he walked away, or that Stryker insited on staying on his field of visión, so he could smirk at the teen at all times.

Then White Coat and two soldiers approached Peter's face. White Coat barked something else and one of the soldiers moved to hold Peter's head in place. He was wearing latex thick gloves.

"Get the fuck off me, pervert!" Peter growled, but his protests were muffled as the second soldier pinched his nose and cut his air supply. Naively, Peter opened his mouth to be able to breath, which resulted in something hard that tasted like Wood being shoved into his mouth.

Then White Coat began speaking in English and Peter kind of wished he hadn't, because what he said made Petre's bladder give in and he felt his pants getting soaked into something warm and embarassing that was definitely not water.

"Electrical impulses control the signals in muscle cells", White Coat spoke calmly, like a very boring professor giving a lecture. "They tell them what to do and how to. Since your cells communicate so fast, it's obvious they have some kind of improved signal receptor on them. So imagine, my boy, what would happen if they had even more energy to speak between them"

And after that, White Coat placed something in Peter's temple's. Peter felt fear invading him and he tried to curse, but the soldier was pushing the wooden table in his mouth so hard that it hurt his mouth and made him want to gag.

Then, there was a buzzing sound. And Peter's whole body was on fire.

His mind began racing with energy. He saw snippets of his memories. Erik's face as he punched him. Charle's smiling at him. His mom's hair. Wanda's colorful drawings. Ororo's eyes. Jean's hands and Scott's laugh. It all played in fast speed, too quickly for Peter to block them. Information began popping out as well. Scenes from the Twilight Zone. The stupid periodic table.

Peter felt it all pouring through him, driving him insane.

And then it stopped. His mind went black.

A few seconds passed, not enough to Peter to recover. And then the twisted circus in his mind began again.

The bullies at school, the uniform of the soccer team he never made it in, Sandy Hill; the first girl he had kissed. It was like a messed up spinning Wheel.

The rest of his body was convulsing. It was vibrating at super speed, so fast that if Peter could have taken a look form outside his body at himself, he'd seen nothing but a blur.

The erratic movements caused friction against the restraining straps, burning through Peter's skin. The metallic taste of blood invaded his mouth when he bit his tounge, even with the barrier of the wooden plate.

Then his world turned black.

And after a moment, everything started again.

He did scream. After the third time he was electrocuted.

He lost the count after the sixth shock.

And by the time they were done, his whole body was shaking violently and his eyes were spinning out of control. His visión was distorted by color lights produced by his brain. His actual brain felt like t was pulsing and melting and Peter couldn't think about anything.

And that was only the first day


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi guys!I** **'** **m alive XD I had the craziest time preparing for the Election Day. As many of you know, I'm a journalist, so it was an exhausting day for me (a whole month of running around in panic, really) but now I'm back…sort of. Anyway, I won't bore you with my excuses, but if your curious, I'll write a bit about what that day was like at the end of this chapter, but feel free to ignore this rambling and skip to the story, LOL.**

 **-0-0-0-0-0-0**

His captors were organized people. Apparently, world domination was on a tight schedule. Peter didn't mind. Routine created a sense of time, which was essential since there was no widows or clock at the place. And time tended to get relative when people were pulling out your nails with tweezers.

Fun fact about Peter #1: His nails and hair grew quicker that they would in a normal human being. Peter could have said that himself to White Coat and tell him all about how he had learned to cut his own hair after his powers manifested because his mom said otherwise they would go broke.

But White Coat preferred pulling out his nails one by one and watch them grow back, which was as painful and disgusting as it sounded.

It was the repetitive cycle of torture methods that made Peter realize he was in trouble. Because at some point it sunk in that he had been in the facility not for hours, but for days and that realization made his eyes water and his heart beat like a rabid animal.

It also meant nobody would rescue him.

He hadn't expected much. Maybe a couple kids that he saved from the explosion because hey, they fucking owned him. Perhaps Raven if she was in the mood for destructing something. Scoot, if only to prove that he could be a leader and use his super tight horrid latex uniform. Jean, Jubilee, Ororo and the Professor were the ones that he relied on the most, appealing to the fact that they didn't found him completely unbearable. But nobody seemed to eager to jump to his rescue.

Not even his father.

Peter had decided Erik was forgiven for punching him. In fact, he was forgiven for abandoning his only living relative. He could even let go of the "terrorist" vibes. Peter would forgive all in a blink, if only he could see his old man again.

Even if they didn't bond as Peter hoped they would, it felt wrong to leave this world on such a sad pathetic final note in their brief relationship.

Because if there was one thing Peter was sure of it was that he wasn't going to leave the facility alive.

"Dear diary, today I stared at the wall for hours, thinking about how great would it be to have string cheese instead of fingers", a familiar male voice interrupted Peter's somber thoughts.

"Shut up Wade", Peter snapped.

Well, at least he had friends.

-.-.

 _"_ _Well, that was a fucking waste of time"_

Erik hadn't meant for the words to roll out of his mouth. Jean had left the room after he said it, erupting in tears and followed closely by Scott, who seemed eager to take off his glasses and tear a new one in Magneto's body.

Charles was staring at his friend with a frown, almost comical due to the recent baldness.

They had assembled a small team in the Danger Room to try and enter the mind of a soldier who had gone MIA and who Moira pointed out as a possible Stryker collaborator. The guy had passed out from the severe injuries in his body, consistent with a brutal beating (the state of the soldier when he had been dragged in by Magneto was a fact that Charles seemed unwilling to address).

Now, after three hours of watching Jean and The Professor taking turns in prodding the guy's mind, their hostage/questioning subject had passed away.

"We have narrowed the location of Stryker's headquarters", Charles tried to point out.

"To the entire state of Nevada", Erik gritted his teeth.

"It seems to be some kind of telepathic illusion protecting the true form of the place to be imprinted into the minds of the military elements that work there… which by the way would perhaps be more useful to us if they were alive when you bring them back", Charles hands clenched to his wheelchair.

Erik simply rolled his eyes, "So that you and Jean can hypnotize them and play mind games?"

"Jean is doing her best to assist us and…" Charles barked, unable to maintain his usual calm façade.

"It's been three days! We might as well start ringing up the morgues!" Erik exploded.

The metal in the room begun shaking violently.

"Erik stop this or I will make you!", Charles shouted with a decided expression. The threat had been used a few times since Peter went missing. In fact, Raven suggested they printed Charles' quote on T-shirts and make a fortune by selling them to the students.

Erik was about to retort when Kurt materialized in the room. It was a distraction notorious enough to break Erik's focus and the walls stopped convulsing.

"You must come with me", Kurt cryptically said, and then proceeded to grasp Erik's wrist. Seconds later, as both Kurt and the metal bender landed next to the Professor, Kurt used his free hand to make contact with the Professor's shoulder, proceeding to teleport him as well to an unknown location.

When they landed again, Erik struggled to regain his balance. The only thing keeping him from barfing the contents of his stomach out was Charles, who had materialized close to the metal bender and seemed to handle the teletransportaion with more grace than anyone should be capable of.

The scene was confusing itself. Freddy, one of the most recent admissions to the school, was holding a delivery boy, who looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack, about ten feet over the ground. Freddy, who had the ability to extend and modify the length and shape of his extremities, was giving the delivery guy a menacing glance while he crushed his throat, giving the apparent offender no chance to speak… or breath.

Down below on the driveway, Raven was kneeling down, holding Lorna defensively as the girl sobbed against the bare shoulder of the blue mutant. Ever since the shape shifter became the subject to Lorna's artistic impulses, the two women had become inseparable. It had amazed Erik to see Raven indulge with the endless tales about fairies and secret castles the girl retold over and over.

Near Lorna there was a cardboard box open, with its contents spread on the floor. Slowly, Erik kneeled down and picked it up.

At first, Erik didn't understand what were the small bloody items that were spread on Charles' expensive carpet. Then, at the bottom of the box, a single Betamax tape remained.

Erik lifted one of the bits that had fallen out of the container, only to let it drop when the pieces in his brain clicked into place.

As Erik emptied his stomach contents on the paved road of the driveway, ten ripped out bloody fingernails remained on the carpet.

.-..

"You don't have to see this Charles", Erik repeated, feeling a bit unstable as he leaned against the solid wooden desk on the mansion's study.

If Charles did notice his friend's pale skin and shaky movements, he chose not to comment. Both men had entered the study and closed the door after them. Not before making sure that the delivery boy knew absolutely nothing about Stryker and that his mere presence in the mansion was just a stroke of bad luck for a broke teenager trying to earn a living.

For Erik, it was like entering a severed bubble away from the rest of the reality. Away from Magda's hysterically sobbing as she stared at the box, which contents Hank had been quick to clear up from the entrance. Away from the little girl traumatized by the realization of his brother being tortured relentlessly by some faceless thugs. The study felt…safe.

He wasn't sure if it was the isolation of the place which provided such comforting feeling or it was simply the presence of the telepath next to him.

"You have to stop pushing me away, old sport. It's futile and exhausting" Charles' voice was coarse, but his face remained serene.

Erik gave a non committed nod and Charles took it as a sign to begin playing the tape that was in the box.

 _A white, sterilized looking space showed up in the screen. The walls were plain and white and the floor was covered in plastic. In the middle of the room, a tall chair stood and Peter was sitting in it._

 _The teenager looked petrified. His hands were restrained by leather straps and his head was fixed in its against the back of the chair by a similar contraption, but the boy still tried to move around, shaking his frame against the seat._

 _An older man entered the screen. He had a white coat and plastic gloves, which gave him a medical appearance that didn't fit with the place he was in._

 _The old man seemed to stare at someone behind the camera and soon, the voice of Stryker ordered, from somewhere else in the room, "Proceed"_

 _The old man nodded, and approached Peter. The boy whimpered, and tried to move away from the man._

Erik saw Peter. He noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the way his clothes hang loosely around his body, indicating that he had been underfed to the extreme that his fast metabolism had begun devouring itself after only a few days. Erik noticed Peter was blinking fast, in an effort, the older mutant guessed, to keep the tears at bay.

And Erik also caught himself scanning his son's face for any of his own features to show up.

He had to stop looking for genetic traces of himself when he noticed the fresh bloated skin in the place where Peter's fingernails were starting to grow back.

A wave of nausea hit Erik.

 _"_ _Peter, tell your dad to come and get you", Stryker teased with an overly sweet voice._

 _The man on the White Coat took out a scalpel and, with a swift and professional movement, began peeling Peter's skin of his arm._

 _The teenager yelled in agony, but the man kept scraping the skin off. Peter's arm soon became too bloody to distinguish clearly the man's hand movements, but by the way Peter responded to every small twist of the scalpel that the process was meant to be as painful as possible._

 _"_ _Tell your father how you feel, kid" Stryker ordered._

 _"_ _No! Fuck off!" Peter spat out, as tears flow down his face. His breathing was agitated and his whole body was shaking, but when he stared back at Stryker, there was pure fire and determination in his eyes._

 _The white coated man left the scene, only to return with a bottle of a transparent liquid with a nooze applicator. The old man looked back at the camera and after a brief nod, he began applying the liquid on Peter's open wound._

This time, Peter's screaming tore through the screen. The pain Peter was experiencing broke the barriers of time and space and Erik felt his hands clenching the desk behind him painfully.

 _"_ _Call for him! Tell daddy to save you!" Stryker's voice roared_

 _"_ _Screw you! Erik don't come! Stay in the mansion, it's a fucking trap", Peter cried as the skin on his arm begun to swell and turning and unhealthy brownish color._

 _"_ _Of course is a trap", Stryker appeared from behind the camera. He placed himself in front of the lens and addresses his spectator._

 _"_ _If you want your son back, you'll come and get him in the next 24 hours. You'll find the address in this video. Come alone and unarmed, or I'll start sending pieces of the kid to the mansion. And tell your boyfriend to stay away from my head, or I will beat your son to death", Stryker commanded, with a sadistic grin on his face._

There was silence after that. The screen turn black and a quick message with an address popped out for a few seconds before disappearing and leaving the two men in the study to stare at their own reflections on the TV.

"I'm going", Erik managed to growl menacingly through his gritted teeth. Erik was quick to cut out Charles obvious objection to the plan before he could voice his concern. "That's my son. And he's being tortured. I'm going"

There was no anger in Erik's heart; just cold indifference. People always assumed murderous rage was some kind of incendiary feeling, with lots of creaming and breaking stuff. For Erik, it was a detachment from the world. A mask that allowed him to go beyond cruelty to make his enemies pay.

No, he wouldn't give Stryker the benefit of a quick dead on an impulse of revenge.

The motherfucker would suffer. Slowly. Methodically. Professionally.

"If I thought I could stop you, I'd say something", Charles said with a voice dripping with sadness and defeat.

Erik was surprised to see his friend/enemy give in so easily. But Charles simply shook his head.

"You realize this is a trap? That he probably doesn't even care about Peter and he's using him as bait?" Charles asked solemnly.

"I am hoping it is a trap. And I don't doubt he'll kill Peter as soon as he has me. So, I'm asking you to use me as bait and save him instead", Erik said calmly.

Charles head lifted and the telepath jaw dropped to the floor.

"Don't be so shocked Charles. You're not the only one who can be a martyr", Erik grinned lightly.

.-.-

Jean had taken refuge in the rose garden on the back of the library. It was probably her favorite place in the school. She had discovered by accident, while she looked for a calm place to read. He had heard the Professor's voice and caught him whispering to the plants. The Professor wasn't embarrassed by her intrusion and when he spotted the book under her arm, he was enthusiastic to share the quiet and private location with her.

Since that first afternoon, both of them had spent many hours together; Jean reading in silence as the professors whispered comments to the plants, or prepared one of his lectures.

Now Jean was using the garden as an escape.

She had stopped crying because Scott kept trying to make her feel better and she felt guilty to see the boy so preoccupied for her. She had excused herself from her group of friends and try to find comfort on the solitude.

She wasn't even mad at Erik. Jean couldn't understand the depths. Of his suffering after being torn away from the family he never even knew he had. She could understand his frustration.

Jean's anger was self accusatory. She had been training every day with the Professor, and even if she did managed to improve a bit every day, she was still unable to make a difference in the search for Peter.

When Jean thought about what Peter, the sweet faced boy who always tried to make everyone laugh, was going through every minute they wasted on a fruitless search, her eyes watered.

So she tried to hide herself from the world and disappear among the roses. She cleared her mind, using the relaxing breathing techniques the Professor had taught her and opened her mind to the energy flowing around her.

After a few minutes, Jean had achieved a Zen state, ignoring the light breeze that had turn the mid afternoon air chiller and the soft buzzing of bees traveling through the petals of the garden.

Her concentration was so deep, that she almost had a heart attack when a voice inside her brain, which she didn't recognize as her own of the Professor, spoke to her clearly.

"Hey red? I dunno what I'm doing, but I hope you can hear this, like…maybe. Shit, I don't know. Maybe nobody is listening, but fuck it", the voice was male, rough and deep.

Jane focused, trying to get a visual image to match the voice. A tall bearded man with a square jaw and a leather jacket began appearing in her conscience, but his image was fleeting.

"Anyway, I don't know if you remember me…you sort of helped me break out of a military base and I sort of killed everyone there. Shit. See, this is stupid. Anyway. If you're listening, I know where they are keeping your friend. So give me a call. Or something like that. Okay, that's it. Fuck this"

.-.-

 **So…election day. I won't get into the whole political debate, because I know most of you are probably tired of being bombarded by the media on the subject, but I'll just say that not one person expected that outcome on the newsroom. Anyway, I worked over 14 hours straight and I had to translate Trump's speech word by word to Spanish, so that was a handful.**

 **Now we're kind of waiting to see how the next events develop. Whatever your vote was, I hope you all spread love and respect out there and brace for the future together. Love to my friends in the US and know that the rest of the world is with you!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Short and sweet! But don't worry guys, I made sure the next chapter is long enough to compensate the wait (thanks for putting up with this super slow burn plot and irregular updating, btw. You're the best!). Next we'll have the rescue mission and Peter… and Wade… and more Logan, because they are fun to write!**

Jean had never felt anything like this before. She was used to hear people's thoughts both accidentally before becoming an X-men and intentionally, when she started going to missions with the team. She was also used to other telepaths, well… just one.

But the Professor never entered her mind without permission and he was usually really delicate on his approach. Like a lady with a maxi bag on a crystal shop or a guy with squeaky footwear on a library, moving with an implied apology for his mere presence.

This was a league all of its own, though. Not only were the Professor and Wolverine aka Logan or vice versa…

( _what kind of name was that, anyway?_ )

 _"_ _Hey, watch it, kid",_ a rough voice echoed in her brain.

… using her mind as a communication line, but she also sensed the presence of another telepath, though his or her essence was vague and barely perceptible.

"Excuse me Logan, but how did you get in touch with us?", Charles always polite, actually spelled his words out loud, as well as mentally, in a gesture to their audience.

" _Heh, I kind of figure out you were like_ …" Logan exuded a cloud of brief confusion with a tint of embarrassment, "… _different. After Red here got inside this thick skull of mine and did that whispering inside my brain shit"_

( _Sorry_ )

" _Don't mid girlie_ ", Logan echoed back, with a slight cocky vibe. " _Anyway, I found this guy on a circus that claims to be some sort of medium and charges five bucks to talk to your dead grannie and stuff like that. I didn't believe at first and I think maybe he might not be as good as Red or you, British guy, but he proved he could read my mind and shit so I asked him for help_ ", Logan explained. " _It's also weird as fuck. He's like, touching my head and humming. Is the humming even necessary? Are you two humming?"_

The Professor grinned lightly. " _No, Logan, we're not humm_ ing"

Jean grinned as well. She could sense Logan's embarrassment and perceive his defensive stance. She could practically picture him, sitting in a worn out tent with yoga music playing in the background and incense burning in a corner.

" _Huh, I guess he's just weird like that_ " The Wolverine concluded.

"What are you grinning at?" Erik snapped. Raven, Hank and Magda also seemed curious for the answer. Jean had momentously forgotten their presence in the study, but now that she regained awareness of their presence, she felt a wave of sympathy for them. It must have been weird to see her and the professor simply staring at each other as Logan talked to them in their heads.

Erik seemed irritated by his lack of participation in the conversation. He actually poked the Professor in the ribs and demanded, "Ask him about Peter"

The Professor rolled his eyes and then, mentally, questioned, _"Logan, would you mind telling me more about this base?"_

"Well, right after ya left me, I felt pretty messed up. See, I have chunks of my mind missing. I don't remember anything before your guys pulled me out of that cell or container or whatever it was" Jean could feel the anger and frustration rolling out of Logan. She sympathized for him and wished she could do something to soothe the pain he was obviously suffering.

Logan must have picked up her emotions because he made an effort to suppress his own feelings and adopted a neutral tone as he narrated the facts. _"I traced that Stryker guy back to Nevada. Followed him for months, until I located his quarters. It doesn't look like much. Just a bunch of military vehicles rolling in and out all day. I only saw him once, from afar and I'm not sure if he's there permanently"_

"Stryker has a base in the Nevada desert", the Professor announced to the people in the room.

"I'll go get a map", Raven replied.

"And Peter..?" Erik pressed, scooting a chair next to the Professor.

"Jean says you think that's where Peter was taken", the male telepath commented.

" _Well I saw them dragging the punk inside. He kept lashing out at the soldiers and they roughed him up a bit, but he was definitely alive. Tough something messed up happened to his hair because it looked all silver-y",_ Logan explained.

"Peter is inside the base", the Professor simply stated out loud. Erik seemed about to explode with questions, but the school's headmaster stopped him with a hand gesture, as Logan's thoughts began flowing again.

 _"_ _I tried to pull him out. I figure I could take down those goons easily and snatch the kid but here's where it get's fucked up. I left my guarding post, and as I approach, I sort of start second guessing my choice. I take about fifty steps and then, out of nowhere, I turn around and ran the opposite way. And I just kept moving away from the base for like three hours. I couldn't even think about it, because as soon as I placed my finger on it, I was distracted by something stupid like the weather in Canada or the chance of the Red Sox have to win if all the players are blindfolded_ ", Logan was obviously pissed off about the situation but the Professor didn't seem surprised.

"It seems like they have a telepath of their own, and he has placed a perception filter around the place", the Professor informed everyone.

"Can a telepath do that?", Erik asked curiously. Jean noticed that even if the concern for his son was still a priority, his endless curiosity over the mutant's race limits were infinite.

"Well, next time I'll tell you to knock it off with one of your tantrums, you'll know I mean it", the Professor suggested, earning a deep frown from the metal bender.

" _Logan, Jean will serve as a link between you and our tactical ops leader. Would you be so kind to give us the coordinated to the target and tell her where you will be meeting with us?_ ", the Professor instructed.

" _Sure thing, Chuck. And make sure you bring me your wallet, because this little chat just cost me 20 bucks_ ", Logan complained.

-.-.-

"What's the plan?" Raven asked, fully suited and ready for action.

Erik and Charles exchanged a knowing look.

"I will meet Stryker at a designated point, far away from his base. I'll use the encounter as a distraction as you lead a team to rescue Peter. Jean and Charles will team up against the telepath as you storm the place and retrieve…" there was a weird pause and Charles raised an eyebrow as he watched his friend deal with some internal dilemma, only to finally conclude, "…my son"

"That's a terrible plan", Raven declared. Then she turned to Charles, "Are you okay with this kamikaze shit?"

"No, but I don't think that counts at all", Charles begrudgingly commented.

"Well, I don't feel comfortable knowing you're walking into a trap and willing to use yourself as bait for a psycho, Erik", Raven muttered.

"If you have a better suggestion, that will result on both Peter and I walking away from this unharmed and Stryker suffering some godly awful punishment for his crimes against the mutant kind, I'm all ears", Erik retorted emotionlessly.

Raven spotted something in Erik's eyes; a sense of resolution, but also of ultimate defeat. She realized then that this was not the course of action he wished to take but that he had already weighed out all the other options and found them useless. Raven tightened his hands into fists and refused to meet Erik's gaze.

"We'll leave in an hour", she declared curtly, professionally and with a deep angst in her chest.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi guys, a quick note. I wanted to include more mutants in this part of the story, but I honestly don't know that much about the X men universe. So the ages in this will definitely be a bit off, specially with the new mutants. If you really have a problem with this, I'm terribly sorry. Also, I'm using a new spell checker so please tell me if you notice anything odd (I mean, more than the usual enormous amount of mistakes LOL)**

"High five me!" Wade excitedly asked Peter as he waved a miniature hand attached to his arm. The first time Wade came back to the cells with a severed limb, Peter puked his breakfast (honestly it kind of looked better after he had digested it than when it had been served. Tasted horrible both ways). But now the speedster had grown used to Wade's power as well as his ability to refuse confronting reality and his long monologues about random subjects.

Wade was irritant, but Peter' put up with him because he was also kind of awesome.

White Coat had apparently only consider their first encounter significant enough to be present and after that initial torture session, the prisoners suffered their daily punishments in a different room, much smaller and with vents that connected to the holding cells.

There, a team of goons and scientist (it was hard to tell them apart), made Peter go through several test deigned to establish the extents of his powers. He had run for 72 hours, been cut and observed as he healed and electrocuted a few times.

All this, as Wade sing to him through the vents.

"Get ready for a psychedelic fun ride on the supersonic groovy experience of Wade's magic jukebox, you'll shake, twist and shout and I won't tell you in which order", Wade's voice came through the vent, right before offering a poorly carried, but truly heartfelt rendition of "She's not there" by The Zombies.

He sang a different tune each time Peter was taken to the torture room. At the beginning, Peter was too busy suffering to pay attention. But day by day he started realizing Wade's voice gave him a chance to distract his mind from the pain.

When Wade was taken to the room, Peter returned the favor. Although he had a hard time keeping up with the lyrics of the song when he heard the screams coming from the room next door.

When they took Kitty, both Wade and Peter remained in silence, trying to ignore the child's screaming.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The British leader was looking a little pale when they took off from the mansion. Jean noticed the Professor kept looking down on Magneto's figure through the window, until the distance between them and the waving figure blurred his body from the view.

The Professor had remained silent after that.

The team was silent and tense inside the plane. They had landed at a considerable distance from the base, where Logan had joined them. From there, the Professor and Jean had been combining their powers to break the perception shield that protected the facilities.

The plan was simple enough. The Professor would confront the telepath with a direct approach and distract him long enough for Jean to sneak into his subconscious and "disarm" his mind.

The rest of the team awaited.

Everything had been running smoothly for the first half hour. The Professor had asked for silence before closing his eyes and directing his energy to break the shield. Jean had joined shortly after, ignoring Scott's concerned glances.

And then she had located the telepath. It had only been a glimpse, a look through the cracks of the shield, but it had been enough to reveal the identity of their enemy and his exact location.

Jean staggered back, horrified. She sat back on the jet's floor, deflated. The Professor noticed his distress and took a break from the attack to focus on her.

Jean breathed heavily as Scott knelt down next to her.

"What is it, Jean?", the Professor asked with a note of impatience.

"He's a kid… the telepath is a kid…", Jean whispered.

.-.-.

Erik walked through the woods with ease. He used the magnetic fields of the Earth to guide his path. Even in such grim circumstances, it felt good to be outdoors. It reminded him of a simpler time, when he had walked down a path very similar to this on his way back from the work at the factory, knowing there was a warm meal and a family waiting for him at the end of the road.

Now he was meeting his executioner.

-.-.

"Dude that's gross", Peter finally gave in and chuckled.

Wade was poking the face of the silver haired teenager with his undersized hand.

"Shut up, it's awesome. Except when you jerk off. I mean I'm on the plus size of the scale so my hand always looks small, but this is just ridiculous", Wade said, as he waved.

Peter was about to retort by saying Wade's dick was probably only huge under a microscope, when they heard a loud explosion that rattled the bars of the cell.

Kitty, who was curled up against Peter, hugged him closer and shut her eyes. She was about four and she had taken Peter as her personal pillow ever since she arrived. At first, she had been too scared of Wade, and she kept stealing glanced to the scars on his face. But the older mutant quickly earned her sympathy by telling long bedtime stories that made absolutely no sense and often ended with mass killings (or sex, but usually Kitty was already slept by that point.)

"My my Peter dear, I think the calvary is here", Wade announced with a large grin.

-.-.-.

"Hi", Jean said softly. She was standing on an empty room with long white walls and no doors or windows.

The only other person in the room was a boy, aged ten or twelve, wearing a raggedy overall. It was hard to tell his age because his features were distorted by an unusual thinness, no doubt caused by starvation. Still, Jean noticed a spark of intelligence inside his grey and green eyes.

"You shouldn't be here", the boy stated, his smalls fists curling in.

"I'm sorry. I'm just…" Jean nervously struggled to find the right approach. It had been Logan's idea to send her as a messenger, claiming she had a soft approach that could be useful to deal with a kid.

"I'm looking for a friend. Will you help me?" Jean noticed the boy's brain working and threw him a smile. "Please?"

"Okay", he said with a small voice.

"Thank you!" Jean exaggerated her tone, making sure to keep up her smile as she, slowly, began moving towards the child. "My name is Jean. What's your name?"

The boy rocked back and forward on his feet, clearly nervous. "Jason", the boy stuttered. "My name is Jason Stryker".

Jean froze in place.

-.-.

"Spread out. Scoot and Logan will take the East, Jubilee and Storm will take the West wing. Nightcrawler and me will move through the rooms and clear them. Everyone keep your comms on and speak out if you see Peter", Raven instructed.

"No offense kid", Logan replied. Out of everyone in the group, he was the only one who seemed at ease with the imminent fight. He was even smoking a Cuban as he leaned on the jet. "…but I rather be paired with someone who can see where he's going".

Scott stood up straight, making a poor attempt at looking intimidating enough to cause an impression on the other man. "Well I rather be paired with someone who takes this seriously, but I guess I'm stuck with you"

Storm and Jubilee exchanged a grin, while Raven rolled her eyes.

"You're both pretty, ladies. Now, Nightcrawler will drop each team in place. Be quick and efficient. Remember your training. And keep in mind, we don't know how much time Jean can buy us", Raven ordered and then gave a signal to Kurt, who grabbed her hand. Raven reached for Storm and soon they were all forming a circle.

Even Logan extended his hand to take Scott's.

.-.-.

"Jason, where are we, exactly?" Jean asked, following the kid through an empty white hall. The room they occupied before had vanished around them and in their place had appeared this path.

"In my mind, I think. But I have a map somewhere here that can help us find your friend", Jason offered, not paying much attention to the fact that neither his lips or Jean's where moving, even if their voices sounded perfectly clear.

Jean had noticed the kid grew more at ease after a while and he seemed happy enough to have company.

"How did you got here?" Jason halted his pace briefly, looking back at the redhead.

Again, Jean measured her words very carefully. "I'm special, just like you Jason. I'm like a superhero"

Any normal child would have been hooked by the word superhero, but Jason's eyes dimmed with its mention. He sighed with resignation. "Is your friend a superhero too?"

"Yes. He can run really fast and make other awesome stuff", Jean described, trying to keep up the fantasy.

"I'm sorry", Jason said solemnly. "This is a bad place for superheroes".

.-.-

"On your right!" Scott muttered, just before he shot a laser at a guard who had appeared right around the corner of the hallway where they had materialized.

Storm and Jubilee where already at their positions and soon the rumble of thunder indicated that they had jumped into action.

"That was just beginners luck", Logan dismissed the shot, taking out his claws and advancing without waiting for Scott to follow.

Raven and Nightcrawler saw them disappearing into the labyrinthine structre. Then, the shapeshifter caught Kurt by surprise by grabbing his wrist.

"I need you to drop me off somewhere", Raven instructed.

Kurt was confused and intimidated in equal proportions. "But I though we were meant to clear the…"

"And we will. After a save an idiot with a martyr complex", Raven declared.

-.-.-

"I think your friends are here", Jason signaled an area on the map. They had reached another room, entirely made out of Legos, with an exact replica of the military base placed on the center, made out of the building blocks as well.

"There's always a lot of screaming there", Jason offered as an explanation.

"Are you seeing this Professor?" Jean sent the message to the British telepath, who had remained on the plane.

"I am. Excellent work, Jean", the Professor complemented.

"Are there others superheroes? Are you friends with them?" Jason asked, unaware of Jean's alternative mental conversation. "Do you live together?"

"Yes, there are many others, with different powers", Jean kept her responses vague, but the kid didn't seem to mind.

"Do you think maybe I can go with you? And live with you and the other superheroes?" Jason's face lightened up with expectation.

Jean hesitated. The Professor was too busy transmitting the location of Peter to the rest of the team and Jean decided he couldn't be bothered to offer her guidance.

"I don't like it here. There are no other kids." Jason seemed to catch on with the hesitation in Jean's featured. "My dad… I think he's a bad guy. He does bad things to superheroes. Calls them names"

"Is he mean to you?" Jean already knew the answer but she tried to buy some time.

"He says I killed my mom when I was born", Jason lowered his voice and his eyes dropped to the ground. "He says I'm a freak"

Jean could tell the kid was about to break down in tears. She knelt, obeying her instincts rather than her brain. Without thinking about the consequences, she placed a gentle hand on Jason's shoulder and rubbed his body, as it begun shaking with sobs.

"Hey, Jason, it's okay. You're not a freak", Jean offered.

The boy looked up with eyes filled with tears. "My dad says I'm a mistake of nature. He keeps me in a room and makes me do things to people!" Jason practically shouted the last words and the walls of the mental structure shook violently.

"What kind of things, Jason?" Jean asked, knowing The Professor would pass any information on Stryker's activities to Dr. McTaggert, so the authorities could lock him away forever.

Child abuse was just a tick on a long list of crimes that could be pegged to the ex militar.

"If I tell you, would you still take me with you? To the house of superheroes?" Jason asked quietly, almost like he was ashamed of the sound of his voice.

"Yes, I promise", Jean answered. She hadn't discussed the possibility of rescuing Jason with the Professor, but she figured he wouldn't be able to turn a blind eye at such evident display of cruelty.

Jason's face lighted u with hope and his voice sounded a bit more confident when he spoke again. "He makes me keep people away. Distract them so that they forget they want to peak inside. And he takes something from my body…" Jason turned around and pointed at a large swollen red circular spot right at the base of his nape.

Jean gasped, unable to keep his eyes away from the physical mark and extending a soft and careful hand to touch it. She barely skimmed over the cicatrized tissue, but Jason still flinched.

"I'm sorry", Jean took her hand away swiftly. "Does it hurt?"

"Not right now", Jason shrugged, turning back to face the teenager.

Jean frowned. _That wasn't a "no"._

"But it makes something to the superheroes. It takes away their powers", Jason explained, accompanying his words with vague gestures that were a sign that indicated that he didn't quite understood the mechanics of what he was saying.

"Permanently?" Jean tried to keep her voice steady as she imagined Peter frozen forever, stuck on a normal speed as the world moved and changed at light speed around him.

"No, it wears off after a few days. That's why my dad keeps taking more", Jason waved her off and Jean released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

"Its okay Jason", Jean offered gently, trying not to think about the horrible suffering the boy must have gone through. "Do you know where your body is? Physically?"

"I think I'm somewhere around here", Jason pointed out an area of the Lego base.

"Okay, I'll tell you what. I'm going to go back to the plane now…" Jason panicked when he heard this and the walls around them begun collapsing. Jean covered her head as a shower of plastic blocks fell upon her. Then she raised her hand on a conciliatory gesture. "I need to go back to my body to come and get you Jason, I'll get you out of here!"

The room stabilized again. Jean had realized Jason held an enormous power. Not even the Professor could cast illusions so strong and realistic. With the right kind of guidance, Jason could achieve amazing things. But she also knew that his power in the wrong hands, could be the doom of many. And it couldn't be healthy for a kid to be isolated inside his mind for so long, with no friends or family to care for him.

"Do you promise?" Jason held Jean's hand. His grip was small but firm.

"Yes", Jean stated without hesitation.

.-.-

Jubilee took down the guards that secured the cell room relatively easily. Now that the Professor knew Peter's location, things were flowing more smoothly. Both girls entered the large hall.

They were in full fighting mode, ready to take down each of the cells until they found their friend.

Which was unnecessary because suddenly a tiny ass hand poked out of the last cell in the row holding a pair of once-white-but-not-anymore-really boxers and waving them energetically.

"Ladies, over here! Two handsome and very macho damsels in distress in need of rescue!" a male chirpy voice called.

Jubilee raised an eyebrow. Storm gave her friend a confused look.

"Oh, there's a girl, here too. More like a human tiny koala, but it will be cool to take her with us in case we need a slave in the future!" the same voice chanted.

And then a familiar, exhausted and very relieved voice echoed.

"Wade, shut the fuck up."


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi guys! So…please don't hate me, but I had to cut this chapter right before the father/son reunion because otherwise it would have taken ages to edit it. Also, I'm not great with action scenes, so I tend not to throw a lot of description in, sorry if that bother's you. I think this story will be going on for no more than six or seven chapter, before I can rewrite my SOA piece or start a Gilmore Girls fic (seriously that ending?) anyway, I hope you hang around till the end.**

 **I want to thank everyone who had reviewed this, is awesome to know that someone is actually reading this. And as many of you, I just love Wade and I can resist including him as often as I can.**

.-.-.-.-.

Erik knew the fact that his execution site would be much more peaceful than his entire life was not lack of irony. But he still accepted his faith and stepped into the small cabin in the woods.

The location for his meeting with Stryker had surprised the metal bender. Instead of a more dramatic scenario like an abandoned factory or a military zone, the cabin seemed more domestic; intimate, even. It was a nice place to die, Erik guessed, since he had no intention of walking out of the construction alive.

At first he had been invaded by grief and responsibility and directed his efforts to saving his only living relative. But when he stepped inside the small cottage, Erik decided his ultimate goal was to make sure Stryker didn't leave the place with life.

As much as he cared for Peter, he couldn't let his paternal feelings get in the way and allow the general to continue experimenting on other mutants. Peter would have his chance of escaping alive with the rest of the Xmen, but Erik could only help by buying as much time as possible for his friends…and family.

It hadn't been easy to find the construction. The road in the woods became thinner at some points and Erik had to climb a few parts to make sure he didn't lose his way. It was probably why there wasn't much security around the place.

On his way to the meeting point, Erik had come across with a single vehicle with a couple soldiers, no doubtly alerted about his arrival. They made no movement to acknowledge his passing, but the weapons firmly strapped to their bodies signaled they were ready to act at the minimum sign of trouble.

Finally, Erik entered the cabin and closed his eyes for a fraction of a second when he heard a hideous and familiar voice.

"Welcome, Mr. Lehnsherr."

-.-.-

"My babies!" Wade threw himself dramatically at his rescuers as soon as Jubilee busted the cell door open.

The two girls stammered back, taking a defensive stance. Wade didn't seem to mind and begun skipping around them humming a song.

"Stop it, Wade they don't know you enough to like you!" Peter yelled from the entrance of the cell, but his voice didn't carry any anger due to the fact that he was on the verge of tears after seeing his friends.

The silver haired boy tried to step forward, but his balance faltered. Ororo quickly moved in front of her friend to support him, grabbing him on a tight hug.

"Peter! You're okay!" Ororo held him tightly, but Peter didn't mind too much; he too needed the confirmation to know that this moment was actually happening.

But then Ororo pressed the sore spot below his ribs and Peter cried out in pain.

The Egyptian mutant took a step back and her face was positively horrified when she looked at Peter.

"Sorry, broken ribs. Never mind, let's just keep hugging. Or take a nap", Peter joked lamely.

"Or we could look around for my suit. These robes leave nothing to the imagination, if you know what I mean", Wade suggest, before twirling in his place and making everyone gag when he flashed his junk to the world.

But everyone froze when they heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps racing towards the cell block.

"Quickly give me some guns!" Wade motioned towards the two female mutants, who only exchanged a look.

Wade seemed to read their expressions because he threw his hands in the air before shouting, "Oh, motherfuck.."

Two lines of armed goons appeared before them. Ororo quickly released Peter, who had to lean in the cell's door for support.

"Oh, this must be Christmas boys and Santa brought us a bag of freaks", one of the uniformed men said.

"I resent that!" Wade complained, but then he shrugged. "But since I'm unarmed", and then he moved behind Jubilee, using the girl as a human shield. "Go Girl power!"

The goon that spoke was about to open his mouth again when there was a familiar red laser blinding most of the people in the room. A second later, a dozen uniformed men flew through the air.

"Show off" a grumpy male deep voice grunted, before there was a metallic sound, followed by shrieks of pain.

.-.-

"I see you made it", Stryker seemed comfortable in the place. Though it looked abandoned from the exterior, the cabin was spotless clean inside.

It was also colder and impersonal than Erik had expected. There was only a chair, made out of wood in the middle of the place. In the far left corner there were some outlets and blocked pipes, maybe from what used to be a kitchen installation. On the opposite site, there were a pair or armed guards, who could easily be mistaken for decorations, since they were completely vacant of human emotion.

"Not an easy place to find", Erik commented dryly. He figured out Stryker would be eager to gloat and that responding with calm was the best way to rile him up.

Something in the general's face twitched, but it was gone before Erik could pin it out.

"My wife liked the seclusion. This was her father's place", Stryker responded, taking an appreciative look around the place.

Erik had no time to stop to think about how surreal it must be to have a nice chat with the man he intended to kill.

"I thought it was because she liked nature", Stryker huffed. "It turned out to be just a hideout for her… difference"

Erik's attention perked. "She was a mutant?"

"And she hid it pretty well, I'm afraid", there was a bitter edge in the general's voice but it was accompanied by a smirk. "Not like your boy. He's quite a show off"

"I suppose you're not going to tell me where he is", Erik played his bluff.

"I can tell you where some parts that used to be him are. We had a lot of fun seeing how much could we tear apart before he gave in. But let's face it, you and I know you're not leaving this place anytime soon"

Erik had no doubt Peter was alive. He had not option but to believe it, since it was the only thing giving him any hope.

-.-.

Peter was amazed at the ability of the lumberjack guy to keep tearing apart guys with his claws (real metal claws how fucking awesome was that), while still carrying a teenager over his shoulder.

Usually Peter would feel humiliated by the fact that he had to be transported like a rag doll, but every time he breathed, his lungs felt like exploding and his head began spinning, so he had to admit there was no use for him in the battle.

Besides, the team seemed to be doing just fine.

Storm and Jubees took turns disarming guys and while the lumberjack guy with awesome claws and Scott keep arguing, they seem to be perfectly able to defend themselves and open a path for the rest of the group.

During the original confusion, when the Wolverine (awesome name, btw, Peter was definitely a fan) and Cyclops came to the rescue, Peter almost had a heart attack when one of the soldiers fired at Kitty, who had walked out of the cell on her own.

But the bullet just went straight through her, like a little ghost. Actually, Wade had yelled at her claiming she was a ghost and kept poking her to see if he could actually touch her.

Now she followed the team, with a frightened look and sucking her thumb, as they moved through the corridors.

Being carried had its advantages, because Peter had time to think and put the pieces together. He realized the last "injection" ( a daily process in which White Coat stuck a gigantic needle on their necks), hadn't take place that morning, and whatever they use to keep their powers at minimum must be wearing off.

Which was fortunate, since Wade insisted on unloading a "bullet extravaganza", as soon as he got his hands on one of the dead's soldiers weapons on everyone inside, while also receiving various shots and injuries, despite not suffering any damage from them.

"It would be easier to aim without this hospital robe, you know? I should just take it off…" Wade commented as he unloaded a full charger on a soldier's head.

"No!", everyone in the team shouted.

-.-.

"The downside to this meeting point is the difficulties to arrive, I'm afraid" Stryker politely commented. "Our friend is running a bit late"

"I don't think I'd like to meet anyone who's friends with you", Erik joked without humor reflecting in his voice.

"Well, maybe I'm swinging that term a bit too freely. He's more of an acquaintance. In fact, a common friend with your son", Stryker was clearly enjoying his role.

Erik remembered the doctor in the film and the way he tortured Peter. Unlike Stryker, the man with the white coat seemed to act not out of cruelty, but rather proceeding methodically and systematically. It reminded Erik a bit too much of the doctors back in the camp and of course… of Shaw.

He tried to repress back the memory but he didn't accomplish it, which showed through the snarl on his face.

"I have to say, some of his methods are a bit too extreme. Even for me…" Stryker chuckled and shook his head.

Then, the sound of an engine interrupted him.

"Oh well, he can tell you all about his time with Peter, now that he's here", Stryker said and then smiled, like he had just gotten a pony for his birthday

-.-.

Wolverine took a corner a bit to fast and Peter's head bumped into the wall. "Sorry kid", the man apologized sincerely.

"Don't worry", Peter responded. He was already struggling to remain conscious, so he figured another injury couldn't add to the damage on his body.

"Christ, this place is like a fucking rat labyrinth" Logan commented.

The rest of the team stopped short behind the bearded mutant. From his position, Peter looked at Ororo, who smiled at him despite been practically gasping for air. The other mutants looked just as exhausted.

Even Kitty, who took a bit longer to reach the point where they were standing, simply arrived to the point where they had reunited and sat on the floor, worn out.

Then Logan's body went stiff.

"Oh Red, good to hear your voice", he muttered, making Scott clench his fists.

-.-.

 _"_ _Look, sweetheart, your friend is barely hanging in here. I got a baby, a punk, a fucking psycho and two teenage girls who are about to pass out here. And you want me to run around looking for another kid?",_ Logan mentally argued.

 _"_ _To your right!_ ", Jean directed him, using her powers. " _Well, you didn't have to pick everyone you found inside… just Peter!"_

" _Are you fucking kidding?",_ the Wolverine grunted mentally but still obeyed and turned in the corner, followed by the other mutants.

 _"_ _Well, we can't just leave him here!"_ Jean complained. _"Two doors down the corridor"_

 _"_ _And we can't run around this place forever_ ", Logan mentally argued, as he physically followed the instructions given by the telepath.

" _But he's helping us! And I promised him he could come with us_ ", Jean pushed. " _Downstairs, you'll see a red door straight ahead"_

 _"_ _I'll tell you what. I'll drop this sack of bones on the jet and then I swear I'll come back and get the kid out. Do we have a deal?",_ Logan asked, guiding the team throw the base.

 _"_ _Fine",_ Jean conceded from the plane. Logan had to repress as smirk; he could practically see Jean frowining.

" _I aint no liar Red and I'm not making one out of you_ ", Logan joked, as Scott melted the red door with a beam of energy, revealing the sunny exterior.

-.-.

The man in the White Coat entered the room with a slow and shaky pace. Any other day in any other place, Erik might actually take the old man for a harmless senior citizen. But the metal bender was aware of the fact that sometimes evil hide in plain sight, in the shape of an old man, or a shiny military uniform.

"Doctor, I'm glad you made it", the general greeted. The white coated man said nothing and simply nodded distractedly. "If you may proceed, please?"

The old man then extracted a syringe from his coat's pocket and balanced it in his fingers, like he was holding a delicate and fragile instrument. The liquid inside the applicator caught Erik's eye. It was bright blue, almost fluorescent.

"Just a safety measure. I know that you wouldn't dare to do anything that would jeopardize your son's well being but one can only trust mutants so far, right?" Stryker crossed his hands behind his back.

The old man moved towards Erik, not seemingly intimidated by the metal bender.

"May I ask what's in it?" Erik asked, feeling his throat dry. Ever since he could remember he had his powers. Even at the camp, when Shaw performed his cruel experiments on him, Erik would not be defenseless. But now, if his gut feeling was right about what would happen next, he would be stripped of his last shield.

"Any guesses?" The general was definitely having the time of his life. If his grin would grow any bigger his face might break, Erik thought bitterly.

"Same thing as the gas grenades you threw at Peter", Erik ventured, already knowing he was right.

"Excellent! Don't worry too much, it won't hurt…not like what will follow" and then, despite being physically impossible, Stryker's grin grew bigger.

The old man was only inches away from Erik but the metal bender made an effort to pretend like the white coat figure was invisible, not wanting to deviate his look from Stryker.

"If you please be so kind to uncover your arm?" Stryker motioned towards Erik.

Erik pulled back the sleeve of the grey wool sweater he was wearing. Then unconsciously, he clenched his fist, making the veins under his skin pop up. The old man grabbed his arm and Erik was surprised to notice the supposed doctor had almost a soft touch. He didn't flinch when the needle penetrated the skin.

-.-.

"Peter!" Charles exclaimed as soon as the weary group of mutants boarded the plane.

Logan tried, as delicately as possible to lay the teenager down on the floor. The kid was barely conscious. Hank immediately tore himself off the controls to examine the broken body of the speedster, but Charles stopped him before he could reach his patient.

"We have to get out of here as soon as possible, Hank. Peter is in much danger as we are if the base called for backup", Charles explained.

Hank seemed pained by the idea of Peter suffering, but he had to admit the Professor's logic. "Where's Raven? She could fly the plane!"

The Professor looked up at his students for an answer. Ororo, who was knelt next to Peter and was trying to find a more comfortable position for the teen's body, shook her head.

"We didn't come across Nightcrawler or her inside the place", she explained.

"See, we have to go back!" Jean cried out. Only then the Professor realized there was another conversation going on inside the plane.

Logan was standing in front of Jean, with his arms firmly crossed over his chest. Scott was standing next to him on a surprising alliance against Jean, who didn't seem taken back by the clear opposition of the other mutants to her rescue plan.

"I said I'll go back. The plan didn't include carrying your ass around, princess", Logan commented dryly.

"We'll go and get the kid, Jean", Scott promised, using a much more conciliatory tone. Jean, who was in the middle of a staring contest with the Wolverine, paid no mind to her friend's words.

"Fine!" Jean conceded, huffing back with indignation. The triumph in Logan's face was evident.

Scott turn to the Professor, "We'll see if we can find Raven and Kurt as well"

"And my suit, don't forget my suit!" Wade suddenly intervened. He was sitting with his legs crossed in a corner.

"Who the hell are you?" The Professor asked, too tired from the day's events to mind his manners.

"Your father. No, your mother. No, both of them", Wade offered, managing to erupt a collective eye roll.

"We found him at the base. We didn't know what to do with him", Jubilee explained and then she looked down at the little girl, sleepily gripping her jeans. "…or with her, either."

"Hi sweetheart, what's your name…" The Professor asked, slowly pushing his wheelchair towards the girl, who took off and ran next to Peter.

"I'm going to try and reach Jason again", Jean declared before taking a deep breath before closing her eyes shut.


End file.
